Chapter 232

“Yes, it’s a warlord.” Everlyn said quietly. “Rank twenty-six.”

He was not the only person who winced at that number. Twice as strong, twice as fast, and twice as difficult to hurt. It was a scary gap, physically it was eight times better than him and because it was a specialist unit, it would have access to spells and skills as well. For people of their rank, it was a fearsome opponent.

“Tom, I assume you’ve got another of those artefacts that curses the target with bad luck?”

He guessed she was talking about his ring but using misdirection so the other humans would not find out about it. The precaution was a little too paranoid for his liking, but it was possible he was too trusting, and her actions were necessary. They didn’t actually know this group of soldiers even if everything he had seen suggested they were fine.

Next time they met he would do a contract binding to protect them more completely. He should have done one earlier when they were discussing terms. Raising it now would only be rude.

Tom nodded carefully.

“Great. If we’re going to win, you have to use it.”

“What does the artefact do?” Selena asked immediately.

“It throws a fate spike.” Everlyn answered on his behalf. “It will strip the warlord of its entire fate reserves and banished any other fate that might be clinging to it. Effectively guarantees that it receives bad luck.”

“And you think it’s worth using something that powerful against this.”

“I think to guarantee victory, we have no choice. The warlord, once the fate spike is used shouldn’t be a huge threat to you, Tom. It doesn’t have any problematic abilities.”

“Wait. Why would Tom be the Tank?” Selena interrupted. “We have two people specialised for that role.”

“Because he can survive, and your guys can’t.”

“Bullshit. My guys are higher ranked.”

“Tom is a dodge tank. None of the three options can block more than a few blows. Tom zero, your guys three and four, if I’m not mistaken. The idea is not to get hit, and Tom is far better at doing that than those two. Anyway, as I was saying it uses duel axes with the normal variety of skills associated with them. Do you need a rundown?”

Tom shook his head. He was comfortable that he would be able to recognise them when they were used. “Anything non standard?”

“Nope. It only has vanilla skills. It lacks a technique that can enhance it speed and it was not overly fast to begin with.”

“It’s rank twenty-six,” Jane pointed out.

“Yes, and has a higher speed than that, but Tom’s dodge should allow him to match it. The only thing you need to really watch is when it triggers it’s Ally Boost attack. It stuns enemies within three metres of them, disorientates everyone up to five metres and leaves you feeling slightly queasy in the ring beyond that.”

Tom visualised what five metres was. It was three to four long strides, the length of a typical ute, and he needed to get out of range before the spell went off. Disorientation against something as strong as a warlord was probably a death sentence.

“How do I recognise that it’s coming?”

“Easy to pick the ability. The eyes will glow blue for two and a bit seconds before the spell triggers.”

“Got it. Maintain continuous eye contact the whole fight. That’s going to make the warlord very uncomfortable.”

Selena smiled, Everlyn didn’t.

“It’s not a joke. Now the major fight is likely to occur in three waves.”

Calmly, she explained their approach and how the geography of the room meant the battles would get increasingly harder as they progressed closer to the command area. Selena’s squad would take one side of the cave and his team on the other. They would support each other as required.

“I’m just excited to use Chaos Bolt.” Michael volunteered. “I mean using it how DEUS intended in furious but desperate anger as opposed to the pop gun version I’ve been using.”

“Same,” Thor agreed. “I want to feel like a magician for a bit.”

The grim faced Everlyn led them down through the tunnel. “Calm down. The first few stages, at least, shouldn’t be overly challenging.”

They reached the throne room.

Tom’s first impression was that it was massive and belonged in the underground rather than here in a trial.

He whistled impressed. The warlord was at the very end, over a quarter of a kilometre from them. Because Everlyn had told him and his Low Light Vision, he could just make out the eight chiefs. They sat at a table with the warlord at the head. Beyond them were the honour guards of all those important goblins. Standing at attention while the bosses ate.

“Don’t panic about timing. I think each segment will be cleared separately, but if they move, I’ll warn you.”

Everlyn had described the cave in detail but she had not done it justice. It took all their breaths away.

It was not a dwarven hall of legend or anything like that. The space was naturally formed, with the usual stalagmites and stalactites filling the cave. Through large sections of the floor had been cleared, and none of the spikes were over three metres long. The ones hanging from the roof were also so high above they could be ignored.

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It was too… It was too impressive to have been part of a system linked to the other caves they had been travelling through. It was a natural cave that the GODs had brought from elsewhere to serve its purposes. The roof was fifty metres above them and long shafts of sunlight came down to hit the floor, pushing through gaps in the ceiling or possibly refracted through crystals. He suspected that it was a bit of both.

Next, Tom studied the shape of the cave. It was like what had been explained to him. Three circular spaces stacked next to each other, with the middle one being twice as big as the ones on either end. Where the sections joined, the width dropped to only twenty metres across so he couldn’t see the sides of the middle and far circle, but Everlyn had told him that the density of goblins did not change but the quality was focused down the centre.

Tom’s eyes scanned the immediate enemies. These were the ones in the bottom section, the furthest from the warlord, and their closest enemies. There were no chiefs present this far down. Lots of hobs, warrior goblins who all looked like they didn’t want to be there, and maybe a dozen specialists.

Small fry that would barely raise a sweat to take down.

“Go.” Everlyn ordered.

Tom took a deep breath and ran towards the battle. The goblins spotted them and hate filled their eyes. He glanced over at the distant war lord and stopped dead as a thought occurred to him. “Wait.” He yelled through the party chat. “Don’t engage…” he started to insist and then realised the opportunity to disengage had already passed. There was the sound of weapons clashing over where the soldiers fought and multiple of goblins were enraged by his presence and charging him.

Crack.

Everlyn was firing her bow to support his efforts.

“To late Tom,” she told him. “Fight.”

Toni’s wind blades shot past him and chewed up two sword gobs and a spear one.

Idiot, he cursed himself. Sometimes his thinking was too slow, and this was a careless oversight. Hopefully, it would not be a critical mistake. If he was lucky, they would clear this section and reset because now his brain had caught up to the situation the current plan was fundamentally flawed.

He charged forward. Twisted between attacking goblins, and released his taunt.

They swarmed, and he tanked their fury.

He moved to a new group and Lightning Enrage did its thing. He watched out for his team members. When goblins tried to peel off to reach them, Tom attempted to intercept.

Four slipped around the side. Clare reacted and in moments was there fighting them hand to hand and then the rest of the team descended to help take the monsters down quickly. Seamlessly, it was brought under control. They were only fighting trash goblins, but the reaction speeds had been impressive.

With them safe, he concentrated on the monsters surrounding him. They opened up the usual mass of scratches on his arms and back. He ignored them and moved fast and clinically. Weaving between the attacks and when he got an opening, slashing with a dagger and using the attack to enrage the goblins more completely.

A chaos bolt hit a group of shamans and generated a field of butterflies. They seemed to land all over the magical shields. Goblins leapt at him and he was forced to duck and spin under them when he next looked toward the shamans they had been torn to shreds.

Tom was not sure he wanted to know what those innocent-looking butterflies had actually been.

He bobbed under a sword slash from a specialist, and then watched in surprise as a secondary goblin crashed into it. The sword gob staggered and Tom pounced on the mistake and slashed his knife across the throat, Deep Cut was activated and the knife bit through to bone. Blood went everywhere, and it dropped its sword and stumbled backwards. It tried to close the mortal wound the slash had left with both hands. It was futile. Tom could tell at a glance without out healing help there was no way it would survive.

He kept moving, dancing between the horrible monsters, relying on his dodge to carry him from one spot to the next.

The fighting died down.

“We need to plan.” Tom insisted urgently. “No pressing. We have to pull back.”

“Are you sure?”

“YES!”

“Selena break off.” Everlyn snapped. “All retreat. Ranged stop runners.”

Crack.

Five of Selena’s team had bows out, and they added their arrows to the mix. Around twenty goblins had tried to flee.

Tom watched anxiously as they were all taken down. Rahmat had launched multiple spears and Everlyn over a dozen arrows.

He sighed in relief.

Collectively, they had got them all.

“Tom, walk the floor and confirm they are dead.”

He did as instructed. Two burst away from the mangled bodies they lay in before he got close. Bow strings snapped, and they died. Another seven he finished off with firm spear stabs.

“I don’t know why Tom insisted on stopping, but Selena can you leave archers in position to kill runners? While we have a war council.”

He couldn’t hear her response, but the archers moved into attack positions along the walls, and Rahmat and Toni joined them.

The core of Selena’s team, himself, Michael, Keikain and Everlyn met on the passage out of the throne room.

“Good job.” Selena said nodding at him. “That was impressive tanking. You’re the person who got this team this opportunity aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t checked with Everlyn recently, but she probably had a high enough ranking as well.”

“Currently I’m twelfth on the ladder.”

Selena seemed surprised. “That’s two high flyers in your group.”

Everlyn looked shrewdly at the leader of the soldiers. “Lots of different paths to get here. You have what? Six of you in the in the top twenty, thirty… forty?”

“Thirty-five,” Jane the bodyguard admitted.

“How did you guess that?” Selena asked. “I don’t remember anyone mentioning it.”

“It was a hunch,” Everlyn said with a secretive smile. “Your group’s strength is teamwork. I guessed you were more likely to have lots in a high ranking rather than one person in the top five. Your response confirmed it. Now Tom this is going to be good. Why was it so vital that we pulled back. What’s so important that we had to completely reset your dodge.”

He smiled. “Two words. Harnessed Meteorite.”

Everlyn shut her eyes in annoyance and pinched the brow of her nose.

“What’s that?” Selena asked.

“It’s a spell. You can look it up if you’re interested.” Everlyn said offhandedly, her eyes still shut. “Fuck it. Harnessed Meteorite.” Her free fist clenched.

Selena’s face immediately went blank and while she was off confirming the spell Everlyn studied the dimensions of the room. Her annoyance and anger grew. “This place is big enough isn’t it?”

Tom nodded.

She grimaced.

“A thousand mana!” Selena shouted abruptly. “There is no way you have that much.”

“Didn’t say I did.” He answered.

“The spell needs…”

“Tom got a cutdown version,” Everlyn snapped. “It was from a challenge trial that he and I aced separately. It is ultimately why we’re here.”

“A cut down version? Does it work the same.”

“Identical but half strength.”

Selena’s eyes widened, and she looked out across the throne room. Then she shook her head. “I’m not sure why this is worth a separate discussion. It might be useful to wipe out a few, but it’ll take multiple meteorites to make a real impact.”

“His spell level is high enough that he gets five meteorites instead of the usual one.”

“What the fuck are you!”

“Lucky,” Tom quipped. “It will work won’t it?” he asked Everlyn. “I mean the throne room area is at optimal range and the second segment will be hit with close to full power as well.”

Everlyn appeared visibly upset. “And for your launch from here you’ll have the advantage of elevation.”

“So it will work?”

“Yes, you already know that.” She smacked her fist against her thigh. “Careless. I should of…”

“It’s okay,” Tom told her. “You can’t be expected to know–”

“Yes, I should.” Everlyn interrupted.

“She definitely should,” Selena agreed.