When Duke put his entire will into the speed of the mech, Bloodstorm reacted without hesitation. Will was translated into action and Duke slammed his claws into the torso of the nearest mech, tearing through its armor with all the amplified strength he could apply. With a twist of his wrist, shredded armor and underlying runescript alike tore free. One more swipe with Duke’s left hand tore through the rest of the mech’s internals exposing what would be the cockpit in a normally manned mech. It collapsed to the floor, unmoving
Weapons started to impact against Bloodstorm as the longer-range mechs took advantage of Duke’s temporary immobility. Duke felt the impacts ringing through the mech interface. Bloodstorm’s armor was holding up but allowing oneself to be bombarded like this wasn’t particularly smart. Right, keep moving. Duke activated another RESTORE and tore into the enclosing crowd of mechs.
He melted through the head of a mech to his left with his beam weapon as he used the leg of the mech to his right as a springboard to tear his claws through its shoulder, disabling the arm that was bringing its own weapon to bear. He seemed to be everywhere at once deeply engaged in the fighting, eventually employing TELEPORTATION as well as most of his other Abilities in the ongoing fight.
Unsure of just how long the fight had lasted, Duke stood atop a pile of defeated mechs that stood nearly three hundred meters tall. It was a gently sloping pile that he figured was over two kilometers wide. His stomach rumbled and he realized how hungry he was. A quick TELEPORT put Bloodstorm back where it should be for storage. Moments later, he dismounted and conjured himself a full meal. As the haze of battle faded and his COMBAT SENSE faded into the background, he realized that he had been conjuring food directly into his stomach for most of the fight.
He was drained, thoroughly exhausted both in body and mind, eating his food mechanically without tasting the flavor at all. He was startled by a voice over his shoulder and he spun in his chair, fork held ready for combat.
“Apologies for startling you, Emperor, but you need rest.”
Duke’s mind stuttered. He was only able to ask a simple question, “How long?”
She smiled sympathetically, “It’s been eighteen months straight of fighting for you.”
“Oh,” Duke responded before passing out on the table.
Duke awoke in his stateroom, unsure of how he got there. He was immediately distracted by a slew of notifications.
*** Congratulations, your extended battle training has led to several increases in your Skills and Abilities. In addition, your sustained efforts have increased your Endurance by 93 and your Psyche by 72.
Your Skill increases are:
Dodge has increased to Adept 91
Ariel Maneuvering has ranked up to Adept 12
Meditation has ranked up to Practiced 9
Martial Arts Combat has increased to Adept 139
Mechpilot has ranked up to Adept 48
Your Ability increases are:
TELEPORTATION has increased to Grandmaster 207
REGENERATION has increased to Master 62
DUNGEON ENGINEERING has increased to Adept 158
LIGHTNING has increased to Adept 97
OVERCHANNEL has ranked up to Master 29
MENTAL FORTITUDE has increased to Adept 151
FORCE has increased to Practiced 68
FLAME has ranked up to Adept 6
POISON has increased to Practiced 58
ACID has ranked up to Adept 3
WIND has ranked up to Practiced 22
ICE has ranked up to Adept 9
EARTH has increased to Practiced 61
LIGHT has increased to Practiced 76
SPELL RESISTANCE ranked up to Practiced 14
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SIMULCASTING ranked up to Adept 11
CLEANSE ranked up to Adept 14
RESTORE has increased to Master 265
SENSE MAGIC has increased to Initiate 32
REMOTE CASTING has ranked up to Practiced 5
INVENTORY has increased to Adept 106
ARMOR SKIN has increased to Adept 143
MANA DRAIN has ranked up to Practiced 18
FLIGHT has increased to Adept 154
SILENCE has ranked up to Initiate 26
MANA TRANSFER has ranked up to Practiced 67
COMBAT SENSE has ranked up to Adept 37
DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Master 201
SOULFIRE has increased to Practiced 31
DEVOLUTION has ranked up to Initiate 7
DUNGEON MONSTER CREATION has ranked up to Initiate 21
IMPLOSION has ranked up to Practiced 61
***
Duke shook his head, clearing the list from his sight. It was a long list with nearly everything going up in level significantly and more than a few ranking up. The combined changes excited him.
Time compression is a wonderful thing. A year and a half of hard-combat training in Bloodstorm and I’ve only used up a day in the Contest. Now, to see if I can take Bloodstorm outside and get to hunting!
Duke TELEPORTED into the mech’s cockpit – it was so familiar to him that it was nearly a second skin at this point. In less than a second, he had the mech sealed up and fully active. His senses connected to the mech’s seamlessly now. He could us his own sensory Abilities in the same way he could now use the mech’s own. He had made the mech his own, fully customizing its runescript to his own preferences through use. The runescript was now solidified and would not change for anyone else. Bloodstorm was Duke’s mech and Duke’s alone.
With great anticipation, Duke headed for the dungeon entrance. Each step closer echoed throughout the dungeon, signaling the inevitability of Bloodstorm on the move. Minotaurs scattered out of the path, only to line the walls watching their Emperor march by. As he passed, the crowd excitedly followed. The mech-builders were given a path to the front of the crowd, following closely behind the mech.
Duke kept his steps intentionally slow, knowing the crowd gathered behind him and wanting to give them as big a show as possible. The celebratory mood swelled behind him as so many had contributed to the construction and refinement of the mech in one way or another. It was all their dreams marching towards the door, ready to take on the outside world and everything it entailed.
At last, Duke stood before the great doors, smiling at the forethought to make them large enough to accommodate even larger mechs than Bloodstorm. With a grinding of stone that Duke realized was completely unnecessary but added to the ambiance, the massive doors swung open. The dungeon entrance glowed before Duke in all its glory.
With a bow to the crafters, Duke backed through the dungeon portal. He arrived, standing on his own two feet with a notification that told him what he already knew – he couldn’t take the mech out of the dungeon.
“Son of a bitch!” Duke shouted to the heavens. “I want to use my goddamned mech!”
He looked at his Abilities and saw the source of his frustration. His DUNGEON ENGINEERING was at Adept 158 – two levels below Master rank. He ground his teeth in frustration. “Two fucking levels. Now I really feel like killing something, but I can’t hang outside the dungeon entrance like this.” He stepped back inside the dungeon.
He was met with confused looks of disappointment as he walked back through the doorway. Sar Forglyn met him with a confused grimace, “You seem to have forgotten to take your mech with you, boss.”
Duke leveled an angry stare that rapidly devolved into defeat and finally a resigned grin. When he spoke it was with a bit of mirth, “Yes, it looks like I need to do some extreme remodeling of the dungeon before I can take the mech out. I suggest you all find your way back to your shops. It’s going to get quite messy around here for a while.”
When the crowd had dispersed, he was left with Sar Forglyn. The minotaur gave Duke a knowing look before turning to walk away, “Try not to kill too many of us, OK?”
Duke shook his head and began to make wholesale changes in the dungeon architecture above them. He changed the shape of the ceiling, making it spiral in on itself before changing it to glass, then metal, then suspended lava, and finally to solidified air. He changed the nature of the atmosphere, warping the laws of physics and magic causing dead zones of magic, areas of intensely concentrated magic, and even areas where magic fluctuated wildly.
He poured on more and more of his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability, pushing his limits in every creative way he could imagine. Days passed as he created and re-engineered the reality around himself. Eventually, he got the message that the Ability leveled-up. Still, he poured on the changes as he had one level to go.
After weeks of pushing things to absurd levels of warped reality, he received the notification he had been waiting for – His Ability had ranked up.
*** Congratulations. Through diligent effort and creativity, you have ranked your DUNGEON ENGINEERING to Master rank. There is now virtually no limit as to what you can create and manipulate within a dungeon environment. You may now remove items of extreme value from a dungeon. ***
Duke whooped with delight. Extreme value. I like how that sounds. He effortlessly restored the dungeon back to its former configuration, reveling in the ease with which he was able to make the changes. There was no longer an effort, there was just a thought, and it happened. Within a dungeon, I am now a god. When this Contest is done, I am going to see just how far I can push this Ability.
Duke waited for the masses to return, having all received his message. It took all of fifteen minutes for even the furthest away to hastily come to see him off again. He raised his hands before the crowd of minotaurs while he flew up into the air.
“Welcome back one and all. It is finally time for me to truly depart. You have all done extremely well and I thank you all.”
He received a roar and cheer in response, the rhythmic stomping of hooves announcing their united spirit. Once again, he TELEPORTED into the cockpit of Bloodstorm and got it fired up and ready. His exit was filled with cheering but Duke didn’t feel the same level of enthusiasm as he his on his first attempt. This time, however, Bloodstorm strode through the portal and to the other side.
Duke smiled, guessing just how much the mech was worth and the ability to make more of them in The Forge just made his smile expand. But that was a project for later. Duke reached out to the portal and collapsed the entire dungeon back into a Core. With a delicate touch, he picked up the Core with Bloodstorm’s enormous hand and deposited the Core into a storage area within the mech.
Time to go hunting. The only question is do I set traps or just come in blazing…