As Edgar floated alongside him, Jonathan started to make decent headway upon his next rank up within his mana manipulation pathway skill. They walked for hours, and as the city started to come into view, Jonathan had made some good progress in increasing the level of his skill. Edgar had not been idle either, and had been working on his elemental mastery. When he touched down, he did so with a bit more aplomb than usual.
“Are you sure this won’t cause friction with the Uthraki allies that we have? I doubt that they will take kindly to us killing their people,” he said as he landed.
“Well, the Uthraki are hardly a monolithic block of a race. It’s not like they are some sort of hive mind that follow the directions of a single overlord.”
“I suppose so. Then again they would hardly find out, would they? Their civilization is one of brutality and coarse honor. A fair fight is like an effort of worship to them.” As Jonathan spoke, he took in the sight of the city in front of him. It was built almost entirely out of obsidian, which had the effect of making it look like it was a shadow upon the realm, rather than an actual city. It was huge, easily twice the size of his own city, if not more. Compared to the Ashen Citadel however, it was quite small.
Patrols of armored guards walked around on the city ramparts, and a massive metal gate stood guard at the front of the city. The land around the city was quite empty however, cleared of all possible hiding spots. The city would have looked a lot more impressive had its material been more varied, but as it was, it was quite hard to make out the details. It just looked like some god had crafted what they thought a city would look like, made entirely out of shadow. The low natural light of the realm was not helping either.
Only the red skin of the Uthraki allowed Jonathan to make them out as they strode across the battlements. In this world, there was no effort made to cultivate food, given that everyone was Tier 2. As a result, the cities and settlements tended to be far starker than they would have been in the Ash Heaps. Jonathan suspected that there were ways that people could eat at higher ranks and still benefit from it.
“Somebody is taking inspiration from C list supervillains,” Jonathan muttered under his breath.
“What?” Edgar asked.
“Never mind. It’s a reference to something that I can’t really explain,” Jonathan replied.
Edgar frowned, but let it go. Sometimes, the sensitive hearing of System enhanced individuals could be annoying. Jonathan would get around to telling Edgar about Earth eventually, but not now.He did not want to risk bringing the wrath of some being more powerful than him down on himself. Who knew what happened to outsiders in this universe. It was likely that they were reviled, and hunted down with extreme prejudice. After all, he had never seen another one.
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As the two men watched the citadel in front of them, the ground started to shake. A monster was approaching, one that was enormous. A moment later, a massive reptilian creature, one that looked like a sort of oversized T Rex, came charging towards the city. The creature was at least seventy five feet tall, and covered with spikes. Its skin was made up of smooth scales, and in the center of each scale was a foot long spine that looked like it could pierce through metal and stone. Each stride shook the earth as it moved, and a faint aura of power could be felt around it.
As the monster neared, the aura grew stronger, creating a solid force that pressed down on Edgar and Jonathan. Neither man tried to resist, fearful of bringing the wrath of the monster down on them. In an exposed place like this, fighting the creature would alert the city guards to their presence.
As the monster raced by, Jonathan and Edgar watched, holding their breaths. The obsidian walls of the citadel started to change and shift as some of the Uthraki used their elemental abilities on them. The walls rose higher and higher, and large spikes of rock were forced out of the substrate.
The Uthraki began to launch the rock spikes at the invader, eliciting roars of anger and pain from the beast. However, the spikes were not enough, and the creature continued towards the city.
By the time it was within a hundred feet, a platoon of Uthraki were waiting for it on the wall. They jumped off in unison, brandishing a motley assortment of weapons. As the T Rex started to claw at the walls, the crew of highly trained Uthraki went to town on its legs, drawing blood with each strike. Annoyed by the gnats circling it, the monster began to stomp, trying to catch its tormentors with its massive feet. However, the Uthraki were quite high level, and avoided it with consummate skill, using the openings to continue attacking.
From the wall, supporting fire rained down, peppering the creature with bolts of energy and more mundane projectiles besides. Because there was no wood in their realm, all of the siege weaponry was made out of metal, rock and sinew.
The ballistas fired long spikes of bone that punched through the sound barrier. The draw weight on the weapons were so high that they propelled their loads like cannons.
The projectiles streaked down, slamming into the monster like the vengeance of an angry demigod. It roared in pain, louder this time, and thrashed against the wall, trying to bring it down. Ominous cracks rang out as it did so, but the wall was simply reformed by the magic of the Uthraki as the damage was dealt. Soon the monster had been worn down by the combined assault, and collapsed, bloodied and broken, to the ground. There, it was quickly executed by the squad of Uthraki.