Eric’s eyes widened even as Nikita and the others raced to comply, the woman giving Eric a grateful nod when he tossed her the silk covers that should at least hide the gold from prying eyes or arcane senses.
“Monster Surge Imminent.”
“Calling in MANDATORY duty for all Blue Corp affiliated mercenaries and enlisted personnel!”
“Peace Treaty is now in effect with all Northeast factions!
Kit up and assemble with your designated units for Terra Defense Protocol ALPHA 001!”
Eric gazed at Caliban in awed disbelief. “Wait, you can do that? Call in an automatic peace treaty? Did you actually just force all the goblin, orc, ogre, and human factions trying to kill my sister and take over whatever human territory they can to agree to a fucking truce? You actually have that kind of pull?”
“The Crimson territory to our south is about to ascend to Black, Ernest. Monster Surges take absolute precedence over even the struggle for ascension.” He flashed a bleak smile. “That addendum we were actually able to forge into both the local and sector accords, no matter how bitterly the goblins protested, and it cost us far more than we should have had to pay.” He tapped the recently signed contract he quickly placed in a jacket pocket. “All factions in the Northeast Quadrant must now comply, or face significant censure.”
Eric shook his head, throat going dry as his worst fear was confirmed. “Monster surge. It’s actually happening.”
Caliban sighed, patting his shoulder.
Eric didn’t respond, dizzy with suddenly racing thoughts as he desperately tried to figure out his next move.
“How long does the cease fire last?”
“For at least a week after the surge is contained, though most factions find permanent resolutions or Contenders unwind their positions, often with Blue Corp assistance, turning their full time focus to planetary stabilization, and are paid handsomely for their change of focus.”
Eric nodded dreading the thought that the city he had just fought so hard to save would soon have to face swarms of evolved Bronze-tier creatures.
Unless, of course, he did something drastic and extreme, and did it now.
“I know most Terrans are uncomfortable with their young fighting,” Caliban continued, pulling Eric away from his desperate thoughts. “But I know of over two hundred adventurers in my Admin files over level twenty that are between the ages of fifteen and seventeen.”
Eric sighed and nodded. “It’s okay. Most only think they’re that age. Do what you have to.”
Caliban nodded. “Don’t worry, they’ll be acting as auxiliary snipers or artillery specialists, out of direct harm’s way. Fortunately, we now find ourselves with a hefty supply of T-1 Blasters.”
Eric dipped his head. “Caliban… whatever you need… take it. Take all the equipment I put up for sale. Give it to whoever needs it. We’ll even call it a zero credit down super sale. I don’t really need the money.”
Caliban’s eyes widened, flashing Eric a surprisingly grateful smile. “You never fail to impress me, ‘Ernest’ Slaughter.”
Eric chuckled. “That’s edgelord to you.”
“All former classers who REMEMBER what they were! Do the dreams speak to you? Then come to the designated spots that should now be blinking in your interfaces. Your Blue Corp Brothers will kit you up as per your skills and predilections. Help defend our city and become official Blue Corp HEROES!”
Eric smirked. “Thanks for cluing me in. I assume that was a very specialized message?
Caliban, looking momentarily winded in the way mages using large chunks of mana tended to, gave a nod before perking up, moments later. “Exactly. Though their parents might not be particularly pleased…”
“Beats being dead.”
“Precisely.”
The earth jolted once more, the manor now filling with screams and panic.
Grim’s features hardened after re-emerging from his study. “The Shamans’ rituals have been disrupted. Their taint purged from my sanctuary. Now if you will allow me to see you both off… I fear the hour has grown both late and perilous.”
Caliban and Eric both bowed their heads once they exited the manor, quickly making their way across the grassy courtyard to the exit. “It has been an honor, Lord Grim,” they both said in unexpected unison, earning a cool smile from their host.
“I expect you both to do your utmost to defend our sanctuary… our home.” The Moor’s entrancing gaze then pinned Eric’s own as the sharp, spicy wind whipped Lord Grim’s frock coat about his frame… before abruptly stilling, the wind now no longer touching the powerful Necromancer’s frame at all. “And I expect you to do our ultimate Profession proud, Eric ‘Earnest’ Slaughter.”
Eric swallowed. “Damn right I will.” Heart pounding, he gazed intently at the lich. “Is there anything you need?”
The ancient figure towering over Eric and Morlekai gave a quiet chuckle as the stars twinkled and flashed with a riot of brilliant colors like fireworks, above their heads. It was both haunting and strikingly beautiful, beyond anything that Eric had ever seen in the night sky before. “Regrettably, dreams of our past, illuminating as they were, did not come with the defenders we once recalled having at our beck and call. So I suspect we will be relying on the strength of our foundations more than a Necromancer should. Still, contingencies are in place so…”
“Surge Centuria.” Eric whispered quiet words as he squeezed tight the ring Lord Grim himself had arranged for him to have, in a life that now might never have been.
And where there had been naught but wildly whipping grass and the footsteps of men preparing to defend a city were a dozen prehistoric predators whose glowing yellow eyes took in the world before hissing and bowing in unison before their master, their toothy maws and rending talons on full display.
Lord Grim blinked in surprise even as a rapidly racing Alice and Morlekai darted toward their master.
“Most impressive,” Lord Grim solemnly declared.
“Master! High level monsters are surging in from the South! Dinosaurs moving as fast as freight trains! They could arrive in… Fucking hell, they’re here already!” Alice screamed.
Eric grinned. “Not really,” He said, patting the neck of his closest Velociraptor Revenant.
“I kept a dozen stored in my ring… just in case.”
The dozen Velociraptors then bowed in solemn unison to a delighted-looking Lord Grim even as Alice and Morlekai gazed on in awed disbelief.
“No fucking way!” Alice whispered, Morlekai gazing at Eric with a strange mixture of hungry envy and gratitude both.
Eric grinned and winked at them both, before turning to Lord Grim who was even now gently stroking the closest creature’s powerful neck.
“Their potency level is equivalent to that of a 106th level White-tier Quickness-focused Advanced Classer. Of course, being as they’re revenants enhanced with runes of Resiliency and Dominion, they’re now also as tough as fuck. They additionally have the Elite perk of Vorpal talons and teeth which a number of friendly mercs made clear is so absurdly rare on a beast that isn’t super ‘leet Bronze that it could only be found on a world ascending way too hot and fast. Joy! Ha ha. Anyway, I’ve just given them orders to serve. But should anything happen to me… if you would like to immediately assume direct mastery over them, you have my blessing.”
With those words the debonair Moore gifted Eric with a brilliant smile, his fingers flashing with such grace as the air lit up with an impossibly complex series of recursive runes sparkling so brightly that Eric was momentarily dizzy… and he was never dizzy. An eyeblink later, the dozen revenants he knew so intimately had no connection to him at all. Though they did dip their heads respectfully his way in eerie unison beyond what even he could compel.
He swallowed, surprised both by his sudden sense of loss and by how easy, how effortlessly, the lich before him had performed the feat.
Before he chuckled ruefully, bowing low before Grim. “Student before the master.”
Surprisingly, the ancient Moore halted his bow mid-way. “One Master to another. For these are unquestionably masterwork forgings that will serve our sanctuary and the students and disciples depending on us for their safety, their well-being, exceptionally well.”
Lord Grim then honored Eric with a bow just as low as Eric’s cut off gesture had been.
Alice’s eyes widened at that.
Eric swallowed, dipping his head before Grim’s approving smile, truly feeling like an aspirant before his better.
“Do you have any limit, boy?”
And here Eric’s lips flashed in a wide, toothy smile. “None at all.”
Grim’s surprisingly melodious laughter sent delightful shivers through Eric’s bones.
“Necromancer King indeed. Well done, boy! Now, by all means, go out there and save our fair city, should the fancy strike you. My disciples and I will do our best to manage things here, along with your priceless gift.”
Eric chuckled in turn. “Sounds like a plan, Lord Grim.”
Exchanging fresh bows between equals that earned looks of outright disbelief from Eric’s friends, Louie and Drake now racing up to come to a dead stop when Morlekai raised his hand… Eric gave them all a smile and a wave as he turned on his heel, heading out the gate with Caliban by his side, his former roguish companions exchanging furious whispers.
“That was Eric in disguise, right? Lord Grim’s treating him like an equal!”
“Shush, sister. Some things must never be said allowed.”
“Shush yourself! Did you see his teeth? How fucking pretty he is? The way spaced twisted and warped around his mouth? Our family’s blood must run through his veins. He has to be a member of our tribe. Nothing else makes sense!”
“Wait, boy scout’s a vampire?” A startled Drake asked in surprise. “Those dreams you told us might be real… I don’t recall that, I don’t think?”
“Where the fuck did those things come from?” Asked a nervous sounding Louie. “Shit. Look how fast they dart and move to our master’s will! I’ve never seen revenants that looked quite that… fearsome.”
Eric tuned out the murmurs of his friends when Caliban’s intent gaze locked with Eric’s own as they stood by the exit gate. “Thank you… Ernest. This entire city owes you a debt beyond measure.”
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“Beyond a 10% cut for me along with personal property rights over any wonder or specific treasure Eric or I might find while claiming territories?” Ernest winked at Morlekai’s expression. “Not including Blue Corp’s 20% managerial cut, of course.”
“Ernest…”
Ernest’s smile hardened. “Every delve me or my better half might uncover...they’re mine. Personally mine. My finds, my mines, if you will. Whether the treasures within are physical or monstrous. And you damned well better believe that those veins of wealth and prosperity will be a hell of a lot richer than what anyone will be finding in chance-found cracks in Terra Firma. Nope, they’ll pay their 20% cut to me for delving rights and count their blessings for delves far more stable and less likely to kill them, free of goblin spite-laden sacrificial traps or ambush points that they would find elsewhere… let alone whatever natural horrors and obstacles would be found in a purely natural and deadly formation without any benevolent intervention at all. And they’ll be making five-fold what they would in any common tier equivalent. Somehow, I can almost fucking guarantee it.”
Caliban’s eyes widened. “Eric… Ernest, if you’re truly capable of this…”
Eric’s grin was all teeth. “We’re running out of time, my friend. The city needs you, and I have a role to play to.”
This earned a surprised blink, before the man gave a hard smile. “Fine. 60% share for yourself of any prized resource you claim of any territory you put under Blue’s administrative care. We’ll claim 20% ourselves as our standard administrative fee and 20% will be held in reserve for Earth’s future ruler. And yes, this will include Delves that we’ll write up as resource rifts! Ha! As if I could refuse the boy who just saved 120,000 lives from a goblin’s slave collars, or me from being exiled from my own clan, because there was no way I would stand for a handful of slimy barristers attempting to enslave my citizens, as that bastard Arlen knew from the start!”
Caliban’s eyes flashed with fearsome heat, before his features hardened into pure professionalism once more. “Alright, enough. Best we focus on the matter at hand. We’re about to be be flooded by Bronze-tier abominations and my ride will be here in less than thirty seconds. I invite you to join me, Ernest. Your insights into the fauna of the territory you had so recently survived exploring may prove invaluable. But please be warned that things might be drastically different from what you recall. However fortunate you were in a Red Zone with a coterie of elite mercenaries at your back, I fear this is far worse than even you can handle.”
Eric smirked at that.
Then he heard the screams.
Time began to stretch and slow, as his heart began to pound.
Outside sounds grew tinny and discordant as Caliban twisted around, so slowly, eyes blinking as if in slow motion at the sight of an armored veli being torn into by a trio of velociraptors that did indeed look a bit larger than Eric recalled.
It didn’t stop him from darting forward, racing for the screeching beasts shredding advanced polymers and reinforced steel plating like paper plates covering delicious meat sandwiches radiating terrified Bronze potency from within.
For just a heartbeat, Eric caught Nikita’s shocked gaze, even as she struggled to twist around in the confined vehicle to fire at the hissing abomination. But she couldn’t fire a shot in a sealed vehicle without risking herself or her teammates. Not until the second they had broken through. And Eric knew damn well how sharp those jaws were. jaws that had just now torn open the back door as the raptor dragged a screaming elf out, spurting his crimson lifeblood.
For just a heartbeat, the terrified elf’s eyes met Eric’s own before the screeching velociraptor that had hooked its pray with talons that had shredded armor so effortlessly opened its maw and chomped down on absolutely nothing as its skull went tumbling through the air.
Bloodfire Strike successfully decapitates your foe!
You have dodged Vorpal attack!
Nikita screamed when the Altopaz veli window shattered with a powerful kick, razor sharp talons slamming her blaster against her chest before digging in.
Her eyes bulged as her ribs cracked.
Before the pressure was abruptly lifted when she was sprayed by fresh blood, thankfully not her own.
“What the hell?” She wheezed for breath, blinking in stunned disbelief when the now headless raptor collapsed before the vehicle, her widened eyes reflecting an all too familiar frock coat and tricorn hat that were all but torn apart as the impossibly fast being they had contained danced and spun about the final remaining velociraptor.
Wicked sharp talons lashed out, cutting deep grooves in the blacktop, yet missing their target completely as the sword-wielder danced and spun about his prey.
The raptor screeched so loud that blood poured from Nikita’s ears, yet its target radiated no fear, instead mocking the creature with laughter. It roared, snapping its jaws in a lunge that would have torn through at least half the power armored suits Nikita had so recently put up for sale.
Yet it could not harm what it could not touch.
Wild fiery green eyes met Nikita’s own for a breathless heartbeat.
Then a flash of crimson fire so bright that Nikita flinched. And when she rubbed her eyes with arms that thankfully weren’t broken, she saw none other than Ernest Slaughter, the disguised prince of the Sylvan Alliance, shivering with unmistakable ecstasy as he was spattered with the blood of his third kill in just a handful of seconds.
“Fucking yes! Finally another cultivation level!” He hooted, gazing at the fallen beasts with a hungry grin, before uttering words that turned Nikita’s look of awed wonder to one of dismayed horror as her ears rang with agonizing static.
Her eyes bulged as her veli shuddered, black ichor now pouring from the speakers.
“Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”
Nikita’s companion, no longer playing the obsequious lickboot and dressed every inch like the competent soldier he was, gazed at the young chuckling Necromancer with undisguised horror.
“What the fuck did we just crash into, Nikita?”
Nikita shook her head. “I don’t know, Phil.” Her eyes bulged. It was all she could do not to scream when the blood and viscera she had been spattered by flowed out of the vehicle before twisting into a rope of glistening gore, growing pseudopods that flailed around like a sentient thing before grasping a massive decapitated head, then dragging it back into the wildly spasming and contorted body it had sprouted from.
The air rang with silent screams that brought fresh tears to Nikita’s eyes as her veli continued to throb and shriek with electromana feedback, black ichor now streaming from her vehicle’s chassis and pooling at her feet. She glanced down, unable to help herself, and stifled a cry. As if, for just a heartbeat, she had seen the faces of screaming souls writhing in the vehicle’s ichor spilling all over her feet.
She cried out, struggling to force open her car door and flee, only to be frozen to captivated horror as one fallen raptor after another lurched to their taloned feet, wobbling with heads connected only by bloody pseudopods before those wounds sealed and the trio of predatory nightmare birds stiffened like soldiers before opening wide eyes glowing with eldritch sapience that sent Nikita stumbling back with a sob.
Then she screamed when they opened their mouths in unison and spoke.
“Ave Imperator Abedimus.”
“Damn right you do, til the final fucking days!” Hooted Ernest with a madcap grin. “Glad you all decided to reanimate. We’re going to have a blast, you’d better fucking believe it!” He then turned to the trembling pair of elves gazing at him with such horrified disbelief even as Caliban and his guards came sprinting to their side.
“Really, Nikita?” Ernest quipped. “I went from favored customer to vile abomination? Shit. Normally it takes a second date for girls to give me that look!” He forced a smile. “Ha ha. That was a joke. And look! You’re friend who had been spurting blood in the back of your veli that you totally forgot about... understandable, as your ribs were being crushed by a raptor that will now never hurt you again... is completely stable! Could that be thanks to a bit of judicious use of BLOOD magic? Hmm, could be! … no, no need to thank me for saving your asses. Just quit looking at me like I’m darkness incarnate… never mind.”
Eric sighed. “I give up,” he said, turning to Caliban who was immediately by a sobbing Nikita’s side.
“Nikita! Are you alright!?”
She clenched Caliban tight in an unexpected hug, sobbing and shuddering and saying nothing at all.
Eric shook his head before exchanging a look with the Bronze-tier killer who had been so ready to fight by her side. The man gave a melodious chuckle Eric instantly recognized.
“Outstanding performance, sir. Truly, in realms of negotiation and Necromantic diplomacy both, you are a force to be feared!”
Eric grinned. “Don’t ever change, Phil.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, sir!”
Eric couldn’t help laughing at that, before turning his friend.
“Thank you,” Caliban whispered.
Eric smirked. “No problem. Oh, and you were right. These oversurge fuckers are larger and tougher than they were before.” His smile widened. “But not by much. You hear what I’m saying, Calibro? Not by much at all.”
Caliban blinked. “But that means…”
“Yup, that so-called red territory has been half-step hot since I entered. And now that that I know just what to expect… I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT!”
The air rang with Eric’s laughter. When the nearby windows exploded in screaming glassy maws, black ichor now flowing from eerily human looking effigies upon multiple walls, he decided he didn’t give two shits.
At least not until he saw Master Grim from a too far away study window that somehow caught his view, giving the slightest frown of disapproval.
Eric cleared his throat as the eldritch manifestations eased to mist and confusion. “Anyway, I got a city to save. AGAIN! Have fun securing the city until I get back.”
Caliban nodded before his eyes widened in genuine horror as he took in what was now at Eric’s rear. “Heaven’s mercy, is the hour that late?”
Nikita vented a bloodcurdling scream. “It’s the final hour! World Eaters are upon us! We must abandon the city and secure a gate! This world is lost!”
Eric blinked, turning around to catch sight of the massive Sand Wyrm giving out a mournful cry as it arched its body upwards, now soaring far above the Blue Palace, its tri-fold mouth opening wide as it fed upon the spicy magical sands now blowing in from the wild territory so close to full on rupture, just a few miles south.
Eric chuckled, ignoring the desperate shouts and panicked cries. “Chill, bros. That’s no World Eater. That’s just Wormy!”
Caliban blinked. “Wormy.”
Eric grinned. “I mean, he’s a Titan Wyrm, sure. But he hasn’t hit World Eater status yet. Those fuckers are miles long. Wormy’s just a quarter mile long!” Eric then frowned thoughtfully. “Okay, maybe he’s grown a little bit since he became my Underlord. But still, no need to worry. He’s my friend!”
Eric closed his eyes, ignoring Nikita’s furious shrieks as Caliban sought to calm her. His brow furrowed in concentration before he gave a satisfied nod. “Okay, no need to worry. Wormy’s got your backs. He and the rest of my pack will chow down on any assholes trying to enter the city while I take out any assholes that already slipped through. Once I’ve taken out whatever raptors I find, I’ll head out and handle the surge.”
Caliban froze, giving Eric the strangest look. “You will handle the surge.”
Eric grinned. “That’s right! And my friends at Rising Sun just thanked me for the lift. They’re meeting up with your elites by Blue Palace. And that’s fine. I don’t have time to babysit them in a swarming black territory, anyway. They’ll be much more useful helping to protect you all—”
His words cut off when a fresh pair of velociraptors cut around the corner, hissed, and raced right toward Eric and the others. They completely ignored the Professional couple that somehow hadn’t gotten the messages to shelter in place, and the looks on their faces made it clear that all they felt now was horror.
Yet before the Velociraptors could pivot for closer prey or finish charging at the juicy targets radiating such sweet potency, Eric seemed to disappear.
Nikita’s blinked, yet before she could utter a word the night flashed with a brilliant explosion of flame, the closest velociraptor tumbling through the air in a shattered, blazing heap.
The second velociraptor pivoted and hissed toward a now snarling Ernest… who proceeded to weave right past the Bronze-tier beast’s snapping maw, before tearing the velociraptor’s throat out.
With his teeth.
“Impossible!” Nikita said with sob, stumbling to the ground as the wild-eyed boy whispered eldritch words that caused the vehicle behind her to crumple and twist, curling into a cocoon of warped steel, chrome, and fiberglass by her scrabbling feet. Meanwhile, two fresh terror birds twisted back to unnatural life before swearing eternal service to the laughing mad-eyed boy who gave the surviving elves a final salute before racing off faster than Nikita could blink, the pack of velociraptors disappearing as well.
She shuddered in disbelief, gazing at the undisputed master of the entire city.
“How? How is any of this happening, Caliban?”
Her prince sighed. “Be at ease, Nikita. The wild magic in the air so symptomatic of a beast surge is merely finding sympathetic resonance with our young hero’s heritage arts. And you and I both know that velimobiles aren’t certified for high mana zones in newly ascending worlds.”
“Certified?!? Our vehicle’s transforming itself into a giant steel velociraptor, Caliban!”
“I see that, Nikita.”
“Ave Imperator Abedimus.” The vehicle creaked, before stumbling off after its pack.
All the elves present gazed at the sight for long moments.
Caliban pulled out a hip flask, taking a long sip before passing it to Nikita’s companion. “Thanks for getting Elwon out of the back seat, Phil.”
“I live to serve, Your Grace.”
“How stable is he?”
“Remarkably so, Your Grace.”
“Excellent. Let’s head back to Blue Palace.”