The sneering goblin elders on their steampunk helicopter had the gall to laugh when BunBun’s ears crackled with crimson lightning once more. Yet they were not fools, the crackling ward around them humming with added potency as the closest pair of elders readied their staves, and in that moment, BunBun understood. The ward did dip down in potency, but only for the eye-blink needed for them to unleash fresh bolts of dark flame that had nearly killed her once already. More than once, if the revenants that had sacrificed themselves to give her a chance to ascend were any indication.
“Foolish familiar! We recognize you now, you twisted abomination! Ha! By council edict, you are now forbidden to even exist! Your master will have to contend with every neutral faction whose foolish administrators are already in debt to us, which is all of those fools, IMMEDIATELY declaring war on him as soon as we make our report! And it is all your fault, you disgusting little abomination! So choke on that while we grant you the death you so richly—“
Find Weakness Skillcheck: Critical Success! In what world does Steam Punk and magica play nicely without compromises being reached?
“FRAGOR!” Lilly roared, her word echoing through the massive caldera as the focus of her spell exploded with such ferocity that all the goblins within the vehicle were pelted by razor sharp fragments of steel that their arcane wards, for whatever reason, did nothing to prevent.
A bemused Lilly gazed at the now rotorless helipad as it slowly began its decent into oblivion, savoring the look of horrified dismay on all three of the elder shaman’s faces as they were forced to contend with the same epiphany that she was. Because of course it made sense why physical objects passed through the wards just fine. They were in a mechanistic aeronautical device that might have some magic resistance, but sure as hell the goblins wards were focused around the shamans themselves. Not the rapidly rotating steel blades that needed zero interference to provide lift. They might have enchantments to ground Lilly’s electricity, at least to an extetn. But sure as anything, the spell that had gotten so good at bursting even soul-forged black steel locks and the cage doors they secured absolutely SHREDDED far more fragile rotary blades with Journeyman potency multiplied by 276%
The results were everything BunBun could have hoped for, making sure to lock eyes and smirk at all three of the bloodied and injured shamans hurtling helplessly down into the bubbling steel-filled crucibles they would have been ecstatically happy to drown 60,000 innocent children within.
And when first one then a second shaman actually found the wherewithal to levitate above the ruined helicopter that landed with an explosion and a final handful of screams, the rabbit commander was ready.
“Alpha company, launch spears!”
With those words, a hundred Sarissa rained down upon the pair of wobbly and wounded shamans with the pinpoint accuracy one could expect of fiftieth level warrior revenants. And even if only a fraction hit, the storm of high velocity cornel wood shafts smashed into the shamans with such force that wards ruptured, bones shattered, and concentration was instantly disrupted. The pair of elder goblins now spurting blood from multiple holes only had time for one final despairing shriek before crashing into the white hot liquid iron and being flash-boiled to oblivion.
You have successfully slain one Level 35 Elder Shaman/Barrister. You have successfully taken out 1 Level 32 pilot. You are now a Rank 6 Primal Adventurer!
Your revenants have successfully slain 2 Level 35 Elder Shaman/Barristers. 5 Revenants have leveled up! Experience earned for Necromancer Class!
Lilly allowed herself a single moment’s fierce exultation, howling with her tiny fist clenched as her ears quivered, still crackling with the crimson lightning she held at the ready, before the peril of the moment once more compelled her forward, knowing there was far too much at stake to dare slow down now.
So her pace only increased, hopping across the thick steel cable as fast as she could, her necromancer perks assuring that all her troops kept pace with her before she shared a glance with one of the pumas, allowed herself a madcap chuckle, hopped on his back and tore off down the cable, laughing like a mad bunny as she screamed her defiance of locks, hydraulic pumps, and all things goblin as she raced towards the now hesitating band of flying goblins hooting and howling their dismay and fury, their balls of fire and javelins of ice missing her completely, her foes not factoring in her charging for them at a hundred miles an hour.
And just as she could make out the squinting countenance of the handful of barrister mages readying their crackling wands of black lightning, just waiting for her to get into range… BunBun, or Little Lilly to her streamer fans, showed them all the edge that three complimentary Appetite For Destruction perks on two synergistic skills could bring to bear as a massive crackling bolt of crimson lightning flared so bright that even Bunbun squinted before the glorious pyrotechnical display… though she made damn sure her Shadow Puma kept to the steel cable as the air erupted with the crack of thunder and lightning and the closest pair of flying carpets exploded in a crimson fulmination as Lilly’s bolt arced between the pair, instantly killing both pilots as the rugs and the one surviving mage between them howled and shrieked for terror as they crashed down to the bubbling crucibles far below.
Yet the look of fear she saw in the eyes of the remaining trio of flying duo’s wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it would otherwise have been, because she was almost certain that she knew what it meant.
“Sanguis Fulmen!” She roared, sending a final searing bolt of crimson doom right before the cable she was one shuddered like an earthquake, the message dancing across her interface every bit as bad as she had feared.
You have successfully slain 3 additional Shaman/Barristers between the levels of 30 & 35! You are responsible for the death of 2 level 25 pilots!
Experience Earned!
You have achieved Level 7 as a Primal Adventurer.
You have achieved Level 8 as a Primal adventurer!
You now have 27 Potency points to spend!
You have successfully ROUTED YOUR FOES!
New Quest Given!
A perilous start!
The goblins finally understand just how fearsome a threat you, a solitary bunny, little more than the afterthought of a boy’s pity, truly represent! Your mandatory quest is to GET OFF THIS CABLE!
You can tell by the growing vibrations that the goblins are doing something to this cable! You still have two more steel cages filled with your revenants! All Spinosaurus and Utah Raptors are currently trapped within their steel cages! Do you have what it takes to free them before the cable is cut and thousands of revenants and mortals are sent hurtling into pools of molten metal?
Heart lurching in her tiny chest, Lilly demanded that her Shadow Puma move ever faster as she planned her next move. She squinted for all she was worth, hoping that she could make out the end of this steel cable and a way to hop off this ski lift of death.
Yet just when 250 Perception revealed that which she most wanted to see as she screamed the words that burst another lock, she caught sight of that which demanded she shift all her plans.
A sight she knew she couldn’t unsee.
Mandator Quest updated with OPTIONAL Feat objectives!
Desperate for a Hero Part 1!
It appears that the goblins are more appalling and conniving than even your master understood, putting all of his legions in your care for the sake of 60,000 children who would have otherwise been doomed to perish in the forging of Black Soul-Steel! But Greed didn't become the head of the Bloodtear Syndicate for nothing. Of course a goblin that devious had backup contingencies in play! Because why should he allow securing Aurelia’s cat’s paw to get in the way of billion credit profit margins?
OF COURSE he had another sixty thousand doomed slaves ready to take the place of those children, so that nothing, absolutely nothing would stop or even slow down the production of Goblinoid Starships!
That’s another sixty thousand doomed souls, men, women, and children, that YOU can save if you choose to, little bunny! Even if that is a tall order for someone so SHORT! (Someone who’s hardly real at all. Right, Little Lilly?)
“Fuck you, System! I’m REAL! I’m as real as they fucking come!”
Lilly’s breath hitched, her heart pounding with something beyond terror or dismay. Her blood surged with bright hot fury as her puma unnerringly led her to face her worst fears. 250 pitiless points of perception forcing her to glimpse the faces of so many exhausted, bedraggled men, women and children who weren’t even gazing her way with desperate pleas for salvation, seeing as they had no chance in hell of making her out against the glare. All they did was sit and weep, or stare out into the void, bereft of all hope.
Lilly’s eyes widened, because of course at that moment she caught sight of something both so wondrous and horrific that it defied all odds, all probability, and could only be the universe taunting her one final time.
Or was it just a glimpse of serendipity or nightmare that she had no right or reason to expect. Because of course a broken, exhausted family surviving orc depredations, mortals just struggling to find food, safety, and hope anywhere in New York state, would gravitate to Freetown. All of them utterly unaware that the entire city was effectively a trap, and who knew how many countless thousands of doomed souls guilty only of a single late payment would find themselves with goblinoid collars around their necks before being carted to their ultimate destination. The ultimate objective that a horrified Lilly now suspected was the goblin’s goal for pretty much the entire human population.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
To serve as the spiritual carbon for their near indestructible battleship-caliber steel. Batches of nightmare forging, sixty thousand broken souls at a time.
“No, no, no, It’s impossible!” Lilly shrieked, eyes widening as she wanted to laugh at bitter pitiless fate, forced to brace herself to endure that which would make the torments of force-leveling herself to Adept tier a walk in the park.
“FUCK!”
But there was no hiding the most agonizing truths with 250 perception. Or the way her mother, who looked like she had aged twenty years, her former vivacious larger than life personality reduced to the broken empty gaze of a woman pushed beyond all her limits. And Lilly KNEW it was her. KNEW it was her mother, for all that she looked nothing like the well kept former super model she once had been, her once glorious blond hair now a dull grey, limp and matted, Her gorgeous trophy-wife body now little more than skin and bones. Because as awful as the transformation had been, the butterfly hair pin Lilly had made her for her fortieth birthday was the one keepsake her mother had somehow, by some miracle, managed to hold onto. That, and the unmistakable sight of her brother, looking like an emaciated exhausted version of the hyper little dreamer Lilly loved so dearly, so stick thin and week that he could barely stand. Even now, her mother held her little brother’s trembling hand, the pair pressed against the cage’s bars by larger burlier slaves, though all of them were malnourished and looked closer to death than not.
Of course, that was the moment that she heard the grinding of hydraulics signifying that the trapdoor would soon drop from the steel cage filled with prisoners, including the remains of her doomed family, in less than a minute’s time.
“NO!!”
“FINE YOU WIN!” She screamed, closing her eyes, and doing what she must.
She choked back a scream, tuning out the mocking lilt of the System voice echoing in her soul even as she found herself dressed in exotic robes of palest blue, facing a cold-eyed elder peering down at her with what could only be considered contempt as the twin purple suns behind them set, the sea and sky both lighting with a gorgeous gold color that did nothing to quell the dread in the pit of her stomach when the elder spoke.
“You would dare ascend now? You are the furthest thing from ready.”
Lilly swallowed the agony in her throat. There was so much she could say. That of course she knew she wasn’t ready, that she was a lot closer in temperament to her master than one might think, and wanted to train up every rank she could without wasting any points at all and to make sure that her skills and talents were truly hers! Not only was it the most efficient path forward, it was also the most prudent. Assuring no points were wasted and she didn’t stunt herself later, because her gifts would truly be hers.
But none of that mattered a lick considering that she had been desperately fighting for her existence since the moment she had awakened and she was rapidly passing her mother’s despairing gaze, so shell-shocked with mortal stats that she was probably unaware of the thousands of undead revenants racing at breakneck speeds right over her head, and if Lilly didn’t destroy that fucking hydraulic motor RIGHT THE FUCK NOW! Her mother and baby brother, after all the horrors they had already endured, after Lilly had actually managed to wind up in exactly the same place where the Bloodtear Syndicate intended to use up and discard the bodies and souls of all of humanity, she sure as fuck wasn’t going to lose the people she loved now!
So Lilly did the only thing she could, welling up all her pain, all her hate, all her fury into one devastating shout.
“FRAGOR!” She screamed.
And the glare her impetuousness earned as a dozen young disciples behind the elder flinched and sobbed made Lilly wilt in her wooden clogs.
Right before the elders matching roar sent Lilly flying to her death with a mournful howl a second later.
Only to pop back into existance, screaming, before her master once more.
“You must learn CONTROL, fool! CONTROL, or the pathetic mortals you call kin will die the minute you unleash your power, thinking it anything but a twisted mockery of our arts to destroy inert steel with your abomination of a psionic shout!” The elder clenched a trembling Lilly’s robes in a tight fist, a dagger of glittering darkness suddenly pressed against her chest.
“Now do it again.”
Lilly’s heart pounded frantically as she drowned in the pitiless man’s gaze.
“Now, fool. Or your mother and brother and 60,000 others are already DEAD!”
“FRAGOR!”
The elder’s skull exploded. Because of course Lilly had just slammed ten points into Runic Spell forger as well as Psionic Rupture.
And this time, only half the children screamed when their eyes ruptured or their ears bled.
And before Lilly could say anything, she was choking on her own blood, the obsidian blade tearing through her heart, earning a silent choking scream…
Before she found herself upright once more.
“Again, Lilly Hendrix. Or you’ll never be worthy of this academy.”
“FRAGOR!”
“Again!”
“FRAGOR!”
“Again!”
FRAGOR!” Lilly screamed for the dozenth, or perhaps the hundredth time, bloody tears leaking freely down her cheeks before clenching her chest for the sharp piercing ache she knew would come but somehow didn’t, gazing with dismay at the pitiless countenance of the elder who cracked the smallest of smiles.
“Very good, Lilly Hendrix.” The man’s icy smile didn’t quite reach his gaze. “You may call me Lord Lou. My enemies know me as Silent Scream. I expect you to present yourself before me when the second stage of Earth’s Trials begins.”
Lilly flinched with surprise.
This wasn’t just System delusion?
Lord Lou’s cool smile grew. “And you may tell your sire’s mother that her maneuvering was meaningless. The Mindlords WILL be making Earth their home, and Aurelia, Silver-Tier monster or no, best flee or make peace with my clan while she can.”
Before Lilly could even think of a response to that, Lord Lou flicked her human forehead with his finger and a howling Lilly crashed back into herself, not daring to waste a second as the poor trapped souls in the cage screamed in growing panic as the hydraulic motors assured their doom, a panicked elbow from one of the many crowded slaves slamming her mother in the back.
She collapsed on top of Lilly’s sobbing brother with a groan.
“Mother!”
But her cry meant nothing before the inevitable grinding gears of goblinoid hate, seeking to doom her entire family.
If she wanted to save them she had no time to sob her despair. Shje had to act NOW! Hopping off her mount and darting to the very lip of the steel cage, getting a good look at the twisted motor of copper, bronze, and steel blowing steam and smoke in great gouts as it slowly pulled free the steel pins holding the cage’s trap door shut.
“A bunny! How the hell did a bunny get up here?” A confused slave’s words drowned were out by the panicked thousands within, that few save the bunny herself could hear.
Before a single word silenced them all.
“FRAGOR!”
Her voice was like the howling storm. The crash of thunder. The flash of lightning that left a numb tingle in the ear juxtaposed by terror at how close one might have come to death.
Yet much to the shocked awe of everyone, not a single soul was harmed when the hydraulic motor abruptly ground to a halt, shrapnel exploding away from the massive steel cage. And if a couple ears were bleeding, it was far, far less than it had any right to be.
Congratulations! You have achieved Rank 20 with: Psionic Blast! Adept Tier with this skill gives you +3 to Psionic Potential / Arcane Potential / Spiritual Energy.
You have chosen the perk: Controlled Destruction! (How balanced. One wonders what could POSSIBLY have motivated actual prudence in your latest hair-brained scheme!)
You have achieved Rank 30 in: Runic Spell Forger!
You have Chosen Appetite for Destruction III! (To absolutely no one’s surprise.) All your spells are now an ADDITIONAL 33% deadlier and more potent than they were before!
You have 7 unspent points!
Lilly paid absolutely no attention to the too chipper interface messages flashing across her mind’s eye, heart in throat as she gazed at the panicked humans, beyond relieved that the pump had stopped, terrified that her mother and brother would still be crushed.
“Stop panicking!” She shouted. “The pump is destroyed! My name is Lilly Hendrix, Familiar of Prince Eric Silver, contender of Earth! I’m here to rescue you all on his behalf! Now if anyone fucking panics after I went to all that effort to stop the pump, I swear to god I will fuck you all up!”
And Lilly realized with a despairing lurch that she was wasting time. That there were two more cages and… “RUN!” She silently screamed to her shadow puma, who did just that as Lilly belted out words that would mean the difference between Life and death.
“FRAGOR! FRAGOR!”
Lilly was no fool. She knew how these things worked. Near impossible hurtles placed by pitiless masters who gave only the tiniest chance for success, no matter how slim, no matter how awful whatever must be endured. And any hesitation, quibbling, or wasting time on unnecessary words, actions, or rank cowardice, would earn such foolishness EXACTLY what was deserved. The death of thousands burdening the soul and forcing one to fierce bitter focus towards absolutely perfection, because any other course was absolutely unthinkable as fury and desperation forged countless foolish contenders into tools and cat’s paws actually worthy of being used by callous overlords guiding everyone like puppets on a string.
Knowing that that was how it was destined to play out, knowing there was no way that she wouldn’t be too late to save the final massive container filled with captives, she was beyond surprised when she somehow managed to blow up every last hydraulic pump before a single doomed soul could be sent hurtling into the pools of melted steel below.
Yet Lilly knew better than to stop now. With desperate orders given, she raced for the cable’s end for all she was worth, finally seeing the lip of the caldera, and the massive structure of basalt, steel, and despair just beyond. A tower to greed, cruelty, and malice like no other, and waiting for her and the revenants she had not split into battle-ready groups were instead silently assisting countless weakened people out of the cages, most especially her mother and brother before carefully leading them all forward at a slow, steady pace that would lead to their deaths if Lilly couldn’t stop the cable’s destruction RIGHT NOW!
So she didn’t hesitate to charge into the sudden withering hail of ice bolts and blaster fire which did remarkably little against her revenants, and the incendiary balls of naptha-like flame which managed to take out one or two of her troops and no more.
It was BunBun that was the only truly vulnerable one, despite her now incredibly ascended form of Undeath. A revenant so sophisticated with an intact metabolism and ever increasing mirroring of homeostatic biological reactions, that she was just a single divine spark away from being alive in every sense of the word. Of course this also meant that she had to be damn careful not to get herself killed, her Vitality no longer linked directly to Eric, even if she was damned grateful that she had been granted physical characteristics equal to 20% of his own when he had, according to the System, sired her.
But still… she was skirting death, daring to take a page from her master’s book, desperate for glimpses of perilous secrets revealed only in the heat of combat.
Though unlike her beloved sire, she wasn’t relying on divine providence and what seemed a destined hero’s luck alone. She had 7 points she was more than willing to spend to make sure that her flashes of insight might, for a time, match his own.