Chapter 8 - CLEAR

The rebels watched, as an ornately robed man came into view from within the settling dust. They watched, as he climbed up a boulder near the edge of the field. They watched, as the scattered enforcers formed ranks again. They wanted to run, but somewhere in the last few minutes, the mages had set the forest behind them on fire. The message was clear, There is no escape. They were going to cut them down to the last man, and then they will find anyone who was even remotely related to the rebels in any way and put them to the sword out of spite.

Where the hell did this fire come from you ask? Well if it was easily noticeable, it wouldn’t be a tactic now, would it?

“I know someone helped you, Tell me the bastard’s name and I’ll give you a quick death. Or else” the man took a pause that seemed to get heavier by the second. “You caused this much trouble, So I’m sure you are all smart enough to understand.” The words were simple and clear, but their meaning gave them weight beyond compare. They were a promise of vengeance upon those who had risen up against him. And, they were also the declaration of the result. A declaration that they had lost, that all their struggle and faith was for naught. And these bastards will reign over them forever.

The knowledge of their defeat along with the image of the mage in all his glory, with not a hair out of alignment sapped their strength. The lord was their goal, Their final enemy, Their reason to fight, The symbol of those who oppressed them. Yes, they had killed his acolytes. But seeing him completely unscathed and surrounded by enforcers, It felt as if the man was an unshakeable, immovable mountain on whom all their efforts were mere scratches on the surface.

But contrary to popular belief, the man wasn’t happy with his victory. Wrong, It had all gone wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This was supposed to be a measure of population control and training for his Acolytes. But it had all gone wrong after his second Acolyte’s death. One dying he could play off as incompetence of the acolyte or sheer dumb luck. But the second? That was a major loss. That was when he had realised that someone was helping these rebels behind the scenes. Canons? These stupid peasants couldn’t manufacture military-grade canons for the life of them. This doubt was confirmed today when he saw Jenkins fall. The gun that struck him had a magic bullet. Now he had lost all 4 of his acolytes. It was a complete Disaster. And worse, he had no proof of who was behind this. Officially it will look as if a peasant gathering killed the acolytes under his tutelage!

That’s when he set the whole forest behind the rebels on fire. Casting undying magefire at that distance took a considerable amount of Mana that left him quite vulnerable. But it needed to be done. This news could not be leaked. That meant that all these rats needed to die here. Besides he had more soldiers now, he didn’t need to put himself forward at all. He was planning on reporting that the acolytes had gone off on a dangerous expedition to hunt down a demon or something and got killed there. Not very plausible but way better than the current scenario.

He was angry, more so than he had been in his whole life. He wanted to scream and shout and tear off his hair. So much loss. His acolytes, his town’s production, his soldiers. All down the drain, and for what? He didn’t even know. Someone had played a brilliant move with these bloody rats as pawns. Yes, these rats, If nothing else he will vent to his heart’s content today. These worms shall know their place.

“Oh, What were you vermin even thinking? Challenging the Council’s authority? Did you really think that you would be able to make a change? Don’t f*cking kid yourselves. You all are just pawns. The canons and the bullet you used to kill Jenkins are all given to you by a mage, are they not? Do you think he cares for your freedom or some shit? He is just trying to get to me by slowing down my town’s production. Yeah, I will need to train a few more acolytes but so what? They are a dime a dozen in the Council Tower. You have achieved nothing. You, mere humans, can never make a true dent on someone like me. You all die in vain!”

He was still speaking when he saw a man rise from the water. He was covered in mud and blood and he had a gaping wound in his belly. He slowly lumbered forward and picked up a dry gun near him from a dead soldier. It was a terrifying sight. He looked more dead than alive. He would have honestly mistaken him for a corpse if he hadn’t been moving. The sight was so strange that both sides just watched on. It was like seeing a train wreck, A horrifying sight that you cannot look away from.

The rebels who had dropped their weapons in despair fell into even more darkness as the dreary rebel looked like a symbol of them, after all, he was the hero they had celebrated not long ago, The MageSlayer. A dying and defeated ember taking a futile shot at the shining sun. The silhouette plodded forward as blood flowed from his wound. It was a heartwrenching sight. As if to make an example out of him the lord sent a blue magic blade and cut off both his legs. The figure fell down and just lay there. The Lord began spouting something again but nobody heard him. They were too busy looking at their fallen Hero.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Bam the gun discharged, but the thin shield around the Lord didn’t even spark. How would it, the muzzle was pointed away from him. But abruptly another huge blast followed that attracted the eyes of the whole battlefield. The Mage Lord’s shield cracked as a canon ball fired from the fallen canon struck it. Right as his eyes widened in surprise at losing his shield the ball exploded. And just like that the invincible lord got himself blasted right down to hell.

HUH?

For a second, the field was shell-shocked. How? What? What the… before they looked to their Hero. A canon was smoking near the fallen warrior. He had shot the musket into the canon’s firing pin. Igniting the loaded canon and striking the demon down.

A grim determination took over the rebels, silent nods and glances passed. They clutched their weapons and raised their heads. He had done it! He had killed the Lord. All of their suffering and their sacrifice were not in vain. Hope still lived. They roared and charged. “For the MageSlayer” echoed in the clearing as the beast of the rebel army tore into the enforcers. With their lord killed the enforcers had no reason to fight. They weren’t exactly loyal to him. Actually, they were terrified. The existences they had considered exalted were killed right in front of them one by one. Their master was lying burnt, face first in the mud. The rebels had graduated from a disorganized rabble to mage-killing monsters. So they did what any such man would do in this situation. They broke rank and ran. The rebels tore into their backs with the fury of those monsters the soldiers had compared them to mere moments ago.

In their manic fury, Each time a rebel killed a soldier he would yell “For the mage slayer!” Making the scene even more terrifying than it already was.

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Max groaned. The stupid Chaos Seed had struck again. He had thought of going out in a blaze of glory in his vengeance but even he hadn’t thought that it will go so well. After he lost his legs he found himself facing the canon he had started the day with, and he realized that the Lord was standing in the very sights of the Canon. Now if he could just ignite it, oh, he has a gun in his hand. So he had just aimed and fired, It was hard to aim with the dark spots but it had somehow struck true.

Now he was just lying there. With no energy to move. He had won the battle but lost the war. He wanted to laugh bitterly but could not do so. His body had gone into shock and the blood loss had caught up to him. He decided to check his Status one last time.

STATUS

Name : Maximus Callahan

Race : Human(X)

Class : None

Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended)

Rank : Seedling(None)

Grade : Seedling(None)

Titles : - MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership)

Chaos Seed : —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nodes : 8,534,430,002(Effective - 10,000,000,000)

Level : 1

EXP : 10290/10,000,000,000

HP : 1/20

MP : 05/05

STR : 8

INT : 9

VIT : 5

Def : 7

Skills : None

MISSIONS

BABY protocol

Trial 1/3: Combat

Phase 1/7

(Squad size reduced from 10 to 1)

(All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.)

(All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt)

(Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.)

Time Left : 5 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds

E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(10/10)

D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (4/4)

C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (29/100)

B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1)

A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (4/4)

S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (1/1)

X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1)

Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker.

Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation

Extra Penalty: Death

Race Piece Penalty: To increase your rating, all previous missions should be completed.

You have killed a seedling enemy captain. +50 *10=500 XP

Huh, so the man he killed just before shooting the fire mage was a captain. Didn’t look much different though.

You have killed a Noviciate Seeker Lightening Mage. (Commander) +100*2*10=2000 XP

The grinning idiot.

You have killed an Adeptus Seeker Fire Mage. (Commander) +100*4*10=4000 XP

The Lord huh? Adeptus? Something changed. Well, who cares now? No point. He knew the rebels will take it home from here most probably. Who knew that the one that caused his bane wasn’t the X-grade mission, But the C-grade one? He still badly wanted to laugh bitterly. As his consciousness faded he remembered his Mom, Octavia, and his friends, and he heard another ding.

Progenitor is drawing from the title MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership). Conditions Fulfilled. Morphing Complete.

You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP

Huh! What is this?

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