Kal’s world faded into a gray plain. The dark halls stained with old blood and human filth were barely worth his attention, besides its existence preventing him from reaching the next corpse more quickly.
His body thrummed with his returned strength and his soul urged desperately for him to use it.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]
Level:
77
Race:
Human?
Health:
1128/4870
Stamina:
7012/7440
Wrath:
0
Attributes
Strength:
733[-190] Containment => 923
Agility:
275[-185] Containment => 460
Endurance:
574[-170] Containment => 744
Vitality:
292[-195] Containment => 487
Intellect:
642
Perception:
507
Will:
1365
Wisdom:
614
The fleeing corpse glowed red in his sight and its wails urged him on. A grayscale door slammed closed between him and the corpse but Kal simply tore it from the wall, the squeal of tearing metal merging with the broken thing stumbling backward. Kal sneered and with a swing of his arm, the remains of the door slammed down on the corpse’s legs.
The corpse screamed as all should, it's a broken mess beneath the cracked and bent door.
The wrath Kal had earned from the other dead had almost completely drained away from the combination of Wrathful Regeneration and the foul mana leaching into his shell.
Health:
1128/4870
Stamina:
7012/7440
Wrath:
0
This corpse was not worth using Slayer’s Intent on but Kal had other methods. His next step brought his Flesh of Iron empowered heel into the corpse’s elbow.
*Crunch! *
*Crunch! *
The corpse continued its wails but one last stomp ended its sorry existence.
You have slain [Arthur Redford | Axeman 67 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Health:
1128/4870
Stamina:
7012/7440
Wrath:
1675
Kal’s body itched and burned as it continued its healing but it was just an instinctive reflex and his mind was already focused on finding the next corpse. His eyes darted across the gray world around him, searching for the next broken existence, the next corpse that refused to accept its fate.
The mangled corpse at his feet had dropped its axe, utterly failing to protect itself. Kal picked it up nod because he felt he needed it but because killing would be quicker with a weapon in hand.
The corpse had been attempting to reach a staircase and get the help of more of its pathetic kin. More came down from above and Kal’s body surged forward without thought as red lights filled his vision once again.
“Quickly! Activate the array-” One of the corpses was saying but his words died in his mouth as Kal entered the stairwell. Ten dead men froze up as he appeared and before any brought their weapons to bear Kal’s axe came down on the first spraying blood through the confined space.
The leading man fell with a scream, his legs tumbling down the stairs before his chest collapsed under Kal’s heel.
You have slain [Gradal Leximan | Warden 72 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Another sneer fell across Kal’s face as a mace wielder brought his mace down with a flash of green light. Kal raised his arm and caught the blow on his forearm with a crack of iron on iron. Pain wracked through his arm but that only made his sneer become a satisfied grunt as he battered the mace away and brought his axe down once more.
Fear dominated the corpses but still, the flashing lights of skills being activated filled the stairwell. It was all gray to Kal’s sight, only the red light of his enemies and their flickering blue souls lit his path.
A foot shattered the chest of the mace wielder and his pathetic shell bent and slammed into its kin. Kal left the ground and kicked off the wall as a sword wreathed in green-black flame arced through the place he was standing. His axe hacked deep into another corpse’s neck, arcing down into its chest. The corpse lived long enough to burst into green-black flame but its heat was nothing to Kal’s resistance and instead, the flame licked at the corpse’s kin.
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You have slain [Yuri Valn | Spellblade 56 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Several of them caught alight as the corpse stilled. Kal half roared and half chuckled as their panicked screams increased but he didn’t stop moving as those who didn’t burn stepped down toward him.
“So… Weak…” His voice reverberated through the stairwell and the corpse shuddered and drew back.
In the time it took for them to recover his axe had torn free of the burning corpse to hack into the side of the next in line. A burning slashed across Kal’s back as another died but its flames did nothing and Flesh of Iron rendered the wound nothing more than a scratch. Surprised terror sounded from the corpse’s throat at the lack of damage, “Gods, what is this thing!?-”
You have slain [Yuri Valn | Magus 65 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
The corpse’s words died as his head became pulp against the back of Kal’s fist and his body fell atop the pile of its burning fellows.
Four more fell to his fist and axe but all the while his wrath remained useless beyond regeneration.
Health:
1873/4870
Stamina:
6876/7440
Wrath:
313
Health:
1873/4870
Stamina:
6876/7440
Wrath:
204
Kal roared in frustration as he continued to move. Further up the stairs, two more panicked corpses raised their hands and a wave of fire flooded down toward him. Kal didn’t slow or attempt to sunder the skill. Instead, his stride brought between two corpses. His axe sawed through one before coming around to hit the other. Skills flashed over the second but they were just too slow.
Both corpses fell but their wounds were only debilitating.
*Crack*
*Crunch*
*Splat! *
You have slain [Ulin Krell | Occultist 63 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
*Crunch*
*Crunch*
*Splat! *
You have slain [Oad Thal | Evoker 64 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Level up!
Kal did not think about his attribute allocation and instantly placed them into strength.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]
Level:
78
Race:
Human?
Health:
1873/4910
Stamina:
6832/7530
Wrath:
2540
Attributes
Strength:
923 => 944
Agility:
460
Endurance:
744 => 753
Vitality:
487 => 491
Intellect:
642
Perception:
507 => 513
Will:
1365 => 1381
Wisdom:
614 => 620
The gray plain that was his world exploded into crimson light as he strode passed the dead. He could feel others above him but the first to die would be the others that entered the stairwell. Kal’s wrath continued to drop and he was sick of wasting energy on recovery. They needed to end.
Crimson flame spewed forth from his left palm and clung to the walls at first before surging upward toward the oncoming corpses. Half a dozen didn’t get a chance to react before it fell upon them and their clothes burst into flames of crimson hate. Their screams urged Kal forward, careless of a volley of dark bolts parting the flames to tear flesh from his shell.
Reflex alone saved his vital organs as his will battered bolts aside with detonations pearlescent light. Pain wracked through his body and dark blood splattered over the writhing, burning corpses beneath his feet but Kal didn’t slow, his borrowed axe hacked into the waist of a cleric.
Health:
1612/4910
Stamina:
5432/7530
Wrath:
672
You have slain [Julia Tress | Cleric 61 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
You have slain [Mal Dixon | Champion 65 | Human]
Mutilation bonus added to total.
Mutilation bonus added to total.
The stairwell was slick with hot steaming gore and battle-scarred with the destruction of mana bolts and conjured flames before Kal reached the next landing. Again, his wrath plummeted the instant the killing stopped as his gaze sped across the gray surrounding in search of his next victim.
Above the crimson hue of the fighting dead pulsed around their pathetic souls but closer were others. Pale things their will to kill disgustingly low but Kal’s mind never even weighed the idea of allowing them to live. The instant his eyes absorbed the light of their souls he moved. Wooden and metal doors were torn free of their frames and the pathetic lives within were ripped apart and their measly power fueled his continued extermination.
Something barely audible within him cried out in anguish as he tore the weak asunder but its cries were as pointless as the corpses that filled his vision. Wetness gathered on his cheeks, diluting the blood that caked his face, and roars of anger twisted into desperate, grotesque laughter.
68 x Humans slain.
142 x Mutilation bonuses applied to total.
Only when the last of the trapped corpses lay dead and gray as they should did Kal’s rampage bring him back to the staircase and upward toward the waiting corpses. They could feel him. Their terror was palpable and his entire being thrummed in the presence of it.
Health:
2452/4910
Stamina:
4832/7530
Wrath:
12873
Even as the foul mana of this world dampened his wrath Kal’s slaughter empowered him. He simply needed to kill until nothing was left. Then his strength would not be necessary.
His surging stride brought him to the next landing where more of the betrayer-touched were preparing to enter the stairs. Kal roared as he arrived and crimson flame burst from his shell with a will of its own, lashing out at the corpses that dared avoid the end.
Empire and Sceleti fighters clashed in the choke point the druids had created while volleys of death and light arced overhead. Dalen could only watch as Iladrian’s druids intercepted the attacks and returned with their own counter-skills. The southern wall shook as something powerful slammed into it knocking several of the archers off balance, slowing the constant fire of arrows from their kill slots.
“Gods! We should have just fucking snuck in! This is insane!” Dalen yelled as Leo landed beside him.
Leo had been switching between walls to lay waste with his fire skills but Dalen could see that the man was getting close to reaching his limit even with the mana potions he was feeding him.
“Agreed,” Leo nodded, “But I doubt we would have gotten far without them.”
Melisia was busy healing people as they were pulled back from the frontline but she shouted over her shoulder, “Is he getting closer?!”
Kal’s aura had only grown stronger since Dalen had received the notification. He had to be either moving or growing even more enraged, “I’m not sure but we need to get to him now!”
“Well, we aren’t getting in anytime soon. Do you think he can get out on his own?” Leo said, downing another mana potion.
“If he could, don’t you think he would have done it by now? Either way, we need him to know we are here. At this rate, he will have to get us out of this fucking mess!”
Overhead Dalen caught sight of Iladrian darting between a dozen different skills that seared Dalen’s eyes just to look at. Each one the War Druid dodged two more fell down upon the enemy soldiers. They were cornered but with the War Druid’s presence and control of the field, things were manageable for their small force.
But then things changed. A deep voice boomed across the battlefield bringing the constant bombardment of gold and green-black bolts to an end.
“Dhinir’s Judgment!”
A column of blinding light arced down from the sky faster than even Iladrian was able to avoid. It tore him down from the sky like a fiery comet burning with golden light. He smashed into the ground outside the eastern wall hard enough that Dalen felt the collision over a hundred feet away.
Terrified shock ran through the Sceleti fighters and almost immediately Dalen saw the empire soldiers starting to push them back.
Dalen ground his teeth and growled, “Fuck! Alright! New fucking plan!” He ran toward the wall where he could feel Kal’s terrifying aura and opened his dimensional storage.