The sound of thunder erupted across the lines. For a moment Tristan thought it was Luke doing something insane. He probably was, but the thunder was from forty-nine cannons going off at the same time. An object being forced out of a tube was quite loud.
The cannons themselves did not shoot any force charged bolts. Which was good because an apocalyptic mushroom cloud spawning in the middle of the Lake Caldera’s army would be a problem. Instead, they shot a pair of head sized steel balls connected by a wire.
They hit the line at a slight delay. Any soldier hit by the metal ball had the impacted body part crushed, any man hit by the wire was sliced apart. It was a disgusting weapon, both less effective than force empowered munitions and more gory.
Eve tried not to vomit at the sight, she could not get used to death no matter how often she saw it. Tristan did not give her time to focus, his sprint down no man’s land veered towards the trench. This section of the line had been spared, mostly due to him using their cannon as a blunt force instrument.
“Kill the rebels!” Custodian’s voice vibrated in Tristan’s skull, “Remember your orders. For the Champion’s Utopia.”
Tristan redoubled his speed as the Forest Caldera chanted their battle, “For the Champion’s Utopia!”
Eve was not able to keep her feet as Tristan outpaced her. Between dignity and survival, Tristan chose to keep Eve alive. She was dragged the last twenty feet to the trench where Tristan picked her up and jumped across.
Thankfully a line of a thousand tier ones could not cross five hundred feet in a dozen seconds. It gave Tristan enough time to inspect the Lake Calderans and let Eve get back to her feet. The damage to the Lake Caldera was quite minimal compared to the gore factor. Each projectile killed three or four people, and while two hundred people was a decent number, it was by no means a debilitating blow.
It appeared to be more psychological than anything else. All these people were crafters and boatmen just a few months ago. They were hesitant to step into their friend's viscera. It was a hesitation that the Forest Caldera took advantage of.
Eve staggered to her feet, taking uncertain deep breaths, “I need to go find Blacklake.”
Tristan nodded, “Go,” then to the soldiers around him, “Don’t let anyone or anything cross this trench, Bruce and I will go fill in some of the more damaged sections.”
The soldiers here looked more angry than fearful, “We’ll keep the traitors back.”
Tristan paused for a moment. He had not considered what propaganda they had been fed, but this would work. Patting the man on the back Tristan turned and ran outward.
He chose to move away from the center because there was a lower concentration of warriors in that area. The elite were collected around the commanders and Elders, Eve herself had eight of them. Bruce managed to keep up with Tristan’s pace.
Stopping at the first set of bodies Tristan saw that he was out of time. Several elementals carrying tower shields outpaced the army. They jumped into the trench and held the shields above their heads. The soldiers surrounding the elemental took a step back, it would have let the man who used the shield as a springboard across if Tristan hadn’t been there.
“Stay on your side,” Tristan caught the armored man by his upper arm and shoved him back down on top of the elemental.
Unfortunately the elemental was not knocked over by the man falling atop it. The next person was already stepping across, only to get shoulder checked into the trench by Tristan. He jumped from his side of the trench to the top of the shield, making his landing as hard as possible.
The elemental staggered to the side, causing the following soldier to miss his step and fall to the dirt. There was no way he could kill the elemental at this rate. He would have to join it in the trench. Stepping off the elemental, he fell to the ground. An unintended side effect was the crossing people were no longer jumping to bloody dirt, they were faced by a spear wall made of frantic citizens.
Not that they were able to cross for long. Tristan cut both arms off the elemental before hefting the dark elemental up by its armor. The element of darkness had little weight and had the weakest natural defenses. It was tier three, just like the first elemental he had killed, but this time Tristan was ready. He shoved a gauntlet up into its ribcage and crushed the heart.
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Tristan pointed to the people on his side, “Stab them if they try to cross!”
The soldiers flinched as Tristan smashed Vulcan down on both of the people he had dropped into the trench. He did not like it much either, but these people had sided with a corpse against other humans. His capacity for mercy had been exceeded by these fools. Thankfully, there was a warrior in the group who led by example. She used her her halberd, which was an artifact to pin an elemental that was attempting to cross.
Tristan did not jump out of the trench. It was dangerous, but so long as he ran close to his side, he should be out of the Forest Caldera’s spear reach. The trench was not narrow, at about seven feet deep and ten feet wide, it was more of a moat with an adhesive floor. That adhesive still stuck to the bottom of Tristan's boots and would make getting up difficult, but it was mostly ruined by the dirt and leaves it had collected over the last year.
There was a slight curve in the trench, but he could still see another elemental standing with its shield raised. The Forest Caldera had managed to get themselves a foothold by sending over a dozen earth elementals to absorb the Lake Caldera’s attention. Humans followed with their polearms. A warrior was trying to push them back, unfortunately, he was struggling with the armor that made even low tier elementals a threat.
Tristan rushed down the trench. As he neared the elemental holding up the shield, several people jumped into the trench to protect it. Two were human and one was a water elemental. He aimed for the elemental, assuming that it would be lighter with only a chest plate. That was a correct assumption, but the soldiers on either side chose to trip him with their polearms. Did they know hitting him wouldn’t be effective against his armor?
Regardless, he was slow to rise as he peeled himself off the floor. A process made slower when one of them sat on his back. Tristan had never realized how difficult it was to get up in armor while someone was sitting on him. He was much stronger than the average person, but his equipment was equally more hefty. The adhesive also stopped him from sliding his hands to a better position.
“So, I’m guessing you're one of those warriors that the Chosen hates so much?” The man rapped a knuckle on Tristan’s helmet, “I was told to keep any tier three we met alive if we could. Your elemental will serve my family for three generations, my kids and grandkids will be set for life because of you.”
Was that what the Lord of the Underworld meant by a Utopia? Elementals of dead family members serving the living for a few generations. The immortality of elementals would make it feasible, and even Tristan had contemplated using elementals in such a way. Still, torturing Grandma to death to make a skeletal caretaker did not sound like a reasonable stance to take.
“Yeah,” Someone kicked Tristan in the side. He barely felt it through his armor, “Good thing we’re brothers or this could get awkward.”
Tristan felt rage bubble up in him. He had spent most of his teenage years in a simmering anger, but true rage was absent. The most infuriating man he had to deal with was Olfred and he was tame. Three times, he had felt rage. When the assassin went after Eve. When Kerri tried to extort him, and now two of these soldiers were debating what to do with his corpse. He did not know what the Lord of the Underworld had done to the Forest Caldera’s humanity, but it was gone now.
He mixed his infusion alloy and decay alloy. Tier fours could naturally infuse anything they touched with essence the infusion alloy allowed him to do it at a short distance and limit the diffusion and dissipation of essence. It was perfect for crafting within an object without chopping it open. Today he shoved the infused decay alloy into the glue.
It burned where the emulsified glue leaked through his armor, but it was worth it to be able to move without obstruction. The reaction from the man sitting on him was much more dramatic.
“Get back, there’s something in the ground,” The man sitting on Tristan cried out as the decay ate through the bottom of his leather boots. He started screaming when it got to the souls of his feet.
“Ren!” The still-standing brother yelled.
It shouldn’t have made him more angry, but the bastard shared a name with Siren. Tristan took a quick step towards Ren, but the water elemental tried to stop him. It swung its club, more like a tree branch than a real weapon. He blocked it on his forearm and made a construct needle spear tip around the butt of Vulcan.
He may not have trained with scythes, but he had with spears. Luke had made a point of it, a spear could be made by snapping the head off a broom. With a little creativity, there was always one nearby. That point was punched through the downed man’s throat and out the back. He started thrashing as sludge, carrying decay leaked in through his neck. Tristan had thought it would be instant, he tried to put the man out of his misery.
Ren’s brother didn’t let him, “Get away from him.”
He swung his pole axe at Tristan, who caught the shaft. There weren’t too many ways to chop with a pole axe while in a trench. The man futilely tried to get his weapon back. This time Tristan went for the face, the open helm did not protect it, and thankfully this one was instant.
The elemental tried to swing again, but its club was now covered in decay from the first strike. It shattered on his pauldron while Tristan got both hands on the tier one skeleton and broke it apart.
Standing in rotting blood, Tristan looked at the ongoing carnage. Silver devils were supposed to be born for this, but he hated it.