The brute guardian stood almost impossibly tall, its head passing the halfway mark of the walls and its armor smoking, glowing with the heat that permeated its body. It turned its gaze from the walls to the two adepts standing close to it as if assessing them calmly, and then it moved. Ethra sight his saving grace as the creature swung its club, the weapon trailing elemental fire down on them. Tunde imbuing himself with his Ethra shot toward the large weapon that shadowed him, clashing with Shadowfang.
The force of the weapon drove him straight into the ground, shock and dizziness flowing through him as he dug his way out of the ground with speed lest he got skewered by the other glowing and burning blade that stabbed into the ground where he stood, driving straight down with all the force of a pike. The brute roared as his Ark screen blinked to like.
[peak tier 4 infernal brute guardian as activated a projection technique!] it wrote.
From the rift came hundreds of flame fangs, bounding across the space between them and the walls, their aim the top. Tunde swung Shadowfang in an arc, releasing the attack in a wide circle of resonance that tore into the tiers 2 and 3 wolves, the tier 4’s among them slowing down. The pounding of the Ethra cannons almost deafened the air, he could himself submerged in gore as he hacked and slashed at the creatures, blade swinging through the air with aura and most times Ethra being switched.
The wolves were pushing for the walls when the elder clapped his hands again in the old technique he used, the fangs falling to their hunches, screaming in agony as they tried shielding their ears. The rift guardian brought its axe down on Joran who nimbly but barely dodged being cut in two from the swing, his technique canceling out and the fangs resuming their mission.
As they got close to the gates of the walls however, it suddenly swung open and Draven along with over fifty rankers poured forth, imbued weapons glowing as they summoned their affinities, techniques being primed. He wanted to shout at them in alarm, this was not the place to face the fangs, they were better within the walls of the city itself, dodging however as the rift guardian came for him. Up on its arm, he made a mad dash for its skull, intent on bringing it down the same way he had brought down the earlier one.
Ethra sight showed him the convoluting nature of the armor the brute wore as it prepared to liquefy itself, hopping a few feet into the air and watching as the liquid metal began to attack him similarly as Elyria’s did. Parrying them away, he was pushed back to the ground where the axe smashed down on him with all the force from on high. He dodged it, stupidity would be catching it and the burst of black flames that followed it spelled absolute danger to him. Rolling out of the way with speed, he got to his feet, firing Ethra disc blades at the creature and watching it get stuck within the folds of its armor like a knife getting stuck through a slab of butter.
The brute roared, the discs exploding on contact with its body, deep lacerations tearing into it and getting past its armored form. It brought its blade and spear hands down on him, Tunde a blur as he began dancing within its blistering moves, Ethra sight straining even with its one-second prediction barely saving him from being skewered, a slide and he was beyond the reach of the spear, his axe clashing with the blade, pouring his Ethra through it as he attempted to shatter the weapon. Instincts screamed at him as he glanced to the side, watching the axe hand come sideways towards him, attempting to slice him in two.
The elder was there, his arms wreathed in silver and light yellow Ethra that intertwined together, crashing into the axe. He radiated lord stage Ethra and aura again, his aura shaping itself into the form of a feline as it roared, the axe cracking and subsequently shattering. It threw the rift guardian off in surprise, the brute reeling as it attempted to regain its footing in an attempt to come at him again. Tunde was through its guard, adept speed pushing him up and towards its chest plate as he came face to face with the tier 4 rift crystal embedded there like an ornament.
He grabbed the crystal, shuddering as violent power tore through him, his body seizing as well when an otherworldly power tore through his mind. He saw through the crystal, saw scenes he couldn’t explain, flashes of powerful presences and beings he couldn’t explain, his mind trying to make sense of all he saw even as he began to feel himself bursting at the seams. The relic reacted, draining the power into itself in large mouthfuls that suddenly took him from bursting to drained in an instant.
When he regained his senses and limbs that shuddered, the rift guardian looked more or less like a desiccated creature. Its once firm physique now looking like something left to dry out in the sun for days, swatting inefficiently at its chest as if trying to tear Tunde off its form. The elder, still burning with lord stage aura grabbed a hold of the guardian’s head, slamming a tiger’s roar into it as its head first bulged, eyes looking weird like they were being inflated before exploding violently.
It threw Tunde off with violence, high into the air as he reeled from what he had just experienced and then crashing down into the ground with thunderous force. He had the luck of imbuing himself before he crashed into the ground, his body withstanding the force even as he had all breath knocked out of him, his limbs weak and drained. The relic on his wrists however glowed with intricate inscriptions again, a memory of his time within the wastelands itself. His attention however, was stolen by the flame fang that had noticed him, something nearly impossible to avoid looking at the crater he had created where he landed.
It gathered with a few more tier 3 fangs, snarling as they circled him, intent on tearing him to pieces. Cycling his Ethra as quickly as he could, he struggled to create Ethra spheres, something to deter them from ripping into him while he gathered his energy. The moment the first one jumped, a black midnight arrow made of Ethra pierced it, slamming it into the ground as the rest yelped, suddenly caught off guard.
Roars came from the distance and right next to him, from the shadows manifested Miria, the inky queen of tyrant’s haven as she had once been known emerged, a black double-edged sword in her hand as she attacked the first beast, irrespective of the fact that she was just disciple stage and it was tier 3. Tunde immediately took the reprieve to open his void ring, grabbing a tier 3 healing elixir and owning it, feeling it mend him at an astonishing rate.
Whispering a prayer of thanks both to the hegemons and then Zehra herself for the unwilling offering she had bestowed him through the void ring he had stolen, he was on his feet, hand stretched out for Shadowfang. The weapon flew into his hands from the smoldering remains of the brute guardian where it lay, turning his attention to the fangs who suddenly retreated at his presence, his aura bellowing out of him in waves of midnight starry power. He was through them in the blink of an eye, Shadowfang tearing them to pieces before he made his way to the corpse of the brute, seeing a huffing elder Joran kneeling in front of the crystal, one hand on it.
“Elder!” he said in alarm.
Jora raised one finger to him, halting him, spitting to the side, Tunde noticing it was red in color, confusion on his face. What had happened to the elder?, had the guardian injured him and why wasn’t he using a tier 4 potion to heal himself?. When the elder finally stood up, his aura suddenly dimmed back to that of an adept, confusing Tunde the more as the elder swayed, tier 3 healing elixir in his hand as he downed it.
Tunde made to catch him when the elder steadied himself, retreating slightly from Joran, not sure if the elder would consider it offensive if he had tried to save him. Tunde stood silently, watching as the elder pointed at the crystal.
“Store that, and strip the brute of its metal armor, that thing is powerful,” Joran said.
“My axe cut through it easily” Tunde pointed out.
The elder stared at it for a few seconds before speaking.
“blade,” he said.
Tunde produced one from his void ring, one of the spare imbued weapons he had taken from Zehra’s ring as well. It was nothing of note, not more than an ordinary imbued weapon, perhaps a keepsake of hers, but with the elder putting a bit of Ethra into it and unleashing its lightning-wreathed form, it was something deadly in the lord’s hands.
“adept” Tunde corrected himself mentally.
Whatever it was that was going on with the elder’s advancement, he would get to the end of it, this was the second time the elder was brushing it off. When the elder stabbed the blade into the metal, the lightning-covered weapon snapped in two, the lightning dying off with a slight explosion, leaving the black and charred-looking armor unblemished.
Tunde stared at it with wide eyes, not believing what he was seeing, Miria was at his side as the elder wanted to talk but paused, aware of her presence.
“that’s a new technique,” he said in greeting to her.
“Something I picked up recently, saved our resident adept here,” she said, patting Tunde gently.
He smiled faintly at her, the trio turning to the rift that snapped close, leaving what was left of the flame fangs without a path of retreat, Harun and Giselle along with their rankers cutting them down in droves, the cannons having gone silent a while back. Miria stepped on the guardian, crouching as she examined the metal.
“This is powerful” she whispered.
“even more so in the hands of the house’s rankers, forged as weapons,” Joran said.
Tunde messaged Harun through the Ark screen, informing him to gather rankers to come peel the metal off the dead form, Miria turned to the elder.
“Are you feeling okay venerable elder?” she asked.
“You swayed a bit earlier” she added.
Tunde glanced at the elder who smiled.
“Nothing to be bothered about, just an attack from the guardian as it fell, I’m over it” Joran replied.
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Miria nodded, watching a large vessel construct rumble out of the gates, Tunde turning to it, staring at the odd contraption of metal that floated a few meters above the ground, on top of it stood Draven, beaming at them.
“I heard we had something exotic!” he shouted over to them.
Tunde rolled his eyes, Joran chuckling as the vehicle stopped a few paces from them.
“what’s that” Tunde asked.
“Something I was able to squeeze out from the baron, an experimental vehicle design draft of some sort, discarded by the artificer’s guild I hear, perfect for our terrain” Draven replied with no small bit of pride.
“And you got it working, something the artificers couldn’t?” Joran asked with surprise.
“Oh no, I didn’t say it wasn’t working, I just said they didn’t like it from what the baron said, consumed too much Ethra crystals they said,” Draven said.
“And we have an abundance of that,” Tunde said nodding.
There had been an absolutely large store of jade Ethra crystals mined and left behind after the botched invasion by the Corespawns, probably some overseer cutting his share out of the deposits that were regularly shipped off to the city itself before being sold to the empire. Whoever it was, Tunde was more than happy for their unintended help, watching as the vessel shook and coughed, no doubt not yet up to optimal operation yet.
“Named it?” Miria asked.
Draven paused, thinking as people began to get off from its large hold behind it, holding imbued axes and digging as well as cutting materials.
“Now that I think of it, it wasn’t named,” he said.
“we’d come up with something later on,” Joran said dismissively.
“Right now, we get whatever we can pick out of its body and we get back within the safety of the walls” he ordered.
“All right, you heard the elder, get moving, or no drinks tonight!” Draven shouted.
Tunde noticed that the majority of the people who had come along with Draven were initiates, not even cultivators in the literal sense. It had been lost on him that there were ordinary people as well too who wanted nothing to do with advancements and fighting and just wanted to make a modest living for themselves. He walked up to Draven where he was surveying the corpse that was already shrinking rapidly, the meat on the skin sizzling away slowly.
“Are you paying them?” he asked.
Draven nodded, still staring at the scroll in his hand as he spoke up.
“Lady Ryka has set up something akin to a ruling system for the entirety of the rock, we have the coins to pay them off for now” Draven replied.
“And what happens when we don’t any longer?” Tunde asked.
With the surge still going on, they were still cut off from what was the majority of the continent and empire at large, the second cycle coming with full force already as the sun was now permanently hidden in the skies above. The weather had gone chilly and while no rain had fallen, it still held sway over the atmosphere, Draven shrugged though, looking up from the scroll.
“No idea, we’re in the survival phase right now, I suggest we survive that first and then bother about what comes next,” he said.
“We have artisans, manual laborers, and other workers now within black rock, not sure if you’ve noticed house leader,” Draven said with a smile.
“But we’re looking less like some clan house and more like a fledgling settlement,” he said.
Tunde nodded, turning back to where the elder stood with Miria, talking, and it had all come to pass because of the elder. Tunde patted him on the shoulder, getting off the vessel and making his way to the elder, Shadowfang strapped to his back. He stood next to him along with Miria who turned her gaze back to Jade Peak.
“We just fought our first battle as a house,” she said.
“And it won’t be our last” Joran said, his gaze still turned to the distance where the wastelands lay.
“You still feel it?” Tunde asked.
“Yes, which makes my point that it wasn’t the rift,” Joran said softly.
“a threat?” Miria asked.
“possibly” Tunde replied.
Joran chuckled.
“Last I checked, we don’t have any allies that way,” he said.
Tunde said nothing, his Ark screen pinging again.
[unknown weapon is interfering with Ark systems]
He paused, glancing down at the black band on his hand, the weapon glowing again as black lines ran up his arm, a sharp hot pain tearing through him as he staggered. Glancing around, no one had noticed, using the sleeves of his robes to cover it quickly.
[unknown weapon is attempting to make changes to base Ark protocols, attempts rebuffed]
[you are advised to discard the weapon]
“If only it were that easy” Tunde murmured to himself.
What was the fang of the realm walker attempting to do?, watching as it powered down, he wondered what it had done to all the power it had stolen. His mind went to those visions that he couldn’t remember as vividly as before any longer, what were those as well?. Refraining from bringing them up to the elder, or anyone in general, he crouched on the stump of the neck of the creature, touching its body with his bare hands.
The relic came to life, draining what was left of power within the creature as his Ark screen blinked once again.
[you have acquired the limited vitality of tier 4 brute guardian; Lifeline is now empowered]
[+10 to constitution]
[+5 to strength & agility]
Tunde’s eyes widened at the huge leap, feeling the power course through him as he stood straight, turning to where Miria held one of the large metal plates of armor that had been peeled off the skin, struggling to drag it. He got close to her as she harnessed it to large metal cables that began to drag it into the metal confines of the vessel.
“Even with level 50 strength, this thing weighs a lot,” she said, huffing.
Tunde grabbed one with a hand, dragging it before harnessing it to another cable wire, Miria’s eyes wide.
“What is your strength?” she asked.
“80” Tunde replied as he checked it out, calling his screen up.
“I’ve found that thing to be limiting,” Joran said, watching the thick slabs of charred metal entering the vessel.
More and more had been drawn inside causing Tunde to realize that there was probably a spatial storage inside the vessel.
“What was created to unlock opportunities for cultivators now seems to instill a sense of limit” he continued.
“On the other hand, it lets you know your boundaries so you don’t get into meaningless fights,” Miria said.
Joran shrugged.
“If you decide to see it that way,” he said.
A few minutes later they were done, leaving a bleached white large skeletal bone lying in front of the walls, Tunde stared at it for a few seconds before making his way to it, climbing its rib cage and using his axe to hack out a few of the ribs, storing them into his void ring before making his way back to the vessel where the elder nodded.
“Was wondering when you were going to do that” he said.
Wordlessly, the both of them made their way back to the safety of the walls, the darkening skies above them warning of what was to come.
*************************
The alpha was ready, it wasn’t sure why it felt that way, but it did. Staring at the hundreds of eggs that lay in the chamber underground, incubated by the large sandstalker females he had gathered from different clutches and impregnated. He left two Sandshards as well as one cinder hide tortoise and a sand swimmer lizard as well, all tier 3, they were more than enough to defend his offsprings from whatever may come for them.
Making its way out of the tunnel, it stood before its arraigned army, more than the eyes could see, all under his thrall, his aura binding them together in some semblance of control. They still snapped and growled at each other, his power not enough to wipe out centuries of enmity among the different species. It stood on an elevated rock, shrieking to the skies above as it unleashed its aura around, the power burning violet bright from its frame.
It had found itself evolving over and over, four times had it shed its former skin for a more powerful form, one of black layered hardened scales, sharp spikes jutting from its spinal cord, and a tail with spikes as well that dripped venom. It was bigger, more muscular, towering over even some of the lesser Sandshards, and its stalagmite weapon had grown with him as well, now a powerful weapon that could shatter the scales of a tier 4 Sandshard with one hit, it should know, it had done those countless times.
Its eyes burned with ambition and power as silence from its assembled army flowed to him, all staring with rapturous gazes at it. Raising the stalagmite weapon that blazed with its aura and venom, it gave a loud roar this time, dust clock vultures tearing through the air as they shrieked, leading the army towards the black rock structure they had seen a day’s march from here.
*******************************
Elyria stood in ceremonial robes below the darkening skies, the entirety of jade peak out for the occasion. She turned her gaze skywards, watching and feeling the heavy Ethra in the air through the winds that blew heavily, the barrier construct put up by the artificer who stood next to the patriarch keeping the worst of it out of the entire city as a whole.
Video constructs flew through the air, relaying what was happening to the crowd all over the city, from the lesser houses to the higher ones as well as all the families around. It was more or less a momentous occasion, one that would herald a new dawn for the clan, but Elyria wondered why she felt some sort of premonition of doom. She shook her shoulders gently, a gesture that didn’t get past Rhyn who glanced at her curiously, shaking her head at him softly. She stood with the rest of the adepts of the clan, lined up and watching the rift duplicator and the artificer who stood in front of it, the patriarch receiving a nod from him as well.
Rowan Verdan, Highlord of clan Verdan and patriarch of the clan also, spoke, his voice carried through the air by his aura.
“Welcome, to this momentous day!” he started.
“We are once again at the edge of a great change, Adamath, our world had favored us with the opportunity it brings once every century, the beast surge!”
“Rather known as a portent of ill will, it is an opportunity for the strong to flourish, to throw off the shackles of oppression and selfish empires!” he continued as murmurs broke out around them.
“Here we go” Elyria sighed mentally.
It was inevitable, she had read and seen scenarios like this play out every time, only this time, she was caught in its wake. Making sure her expression didn’t change, she sent a message to Tunde, hoping he saw it on time as she wouldn’t have a lot of time to get out of the city anyway. Rowan raised his hands, touching the duplicator as he drew his sword, an ornately fashioned weapon of the artificer, crafted to carry the affinity of the Highlord and obey his every will, a soulbound weapon as well.
Elyria watched as the duplicator lit up, the feeling she had earlier, the one of something bad about to happen rising up within her again, like she had to throw up. She had no concrete evidence of any such thing, and she couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself, so she clamped down on it silently. Her gaze strayed to elder Celia, the lady smiling softly at the large construct that stood opposite the Ark spire and suddenly her gut feeling intensified.
She had been brought up to follow her instincts, her guts so to say, and something told her it was linked to the elder. Elder Celia glanced at her at that moment, the smile on her face faltering before she intensified it, giving her a reassuring nod as a cold feeling went up Elyria’s spine. She considered messaging Rhyn, but what was she to say?, what could she hope to accomplish?, again she found herself cursing ever allowing Thorne and Tunde to get her to stay in the city when she could have simply run away, braving the first cycle of the surge.
As the duplicator began to swirl and a rift began to appear slowly in the air, Elyria found herself drawing a silver metal liquid to her side just in case.
“What are you doing?” Rhyn hissed urgently at her, not turning to look at her.
“Something isn’t right about this” she replied.
“of course, it’s a rift, a tier 5 rift from what I’m seeing,” he said.
All over the city, the ordinary citizens had been taken into reinforced shelters that could take tier 5 attacks, also built by the artificer, leaving the rankers and adepts positioned to attack the rift the moment its denizens poured out, barriers placed across the city to isolate the creatures, turning the entirety of jade peak into a hunting ground, just as the patriarch wanted.
“No,” Elyria said calmly.
“No, something worse, something- “she said as a figure jumped out of the rift, landing as shock tore through the entire assembled powers of clan Verdan.
“impo- “one of the elders said as a black necrotic blade sliced him in two.
Elyria was moving, metal liquid blade in hand as the patriarch shouted, already glowing with power.
“Revenants!” he said.
From the rift poured out hundreds of creatures of the cult of undeath, high above them, three figures floated, two lords and a woman that unleashed a revolting aura so terrible that it drove the disciples of Verdan to madness and killed off more than half of the initiates in the entire city at once.
“A Highlady” Elyria said weakly.
“They brought a Highlady”.