How long he had been lost in the waves of power, he couldn't say. It clawed its way from the inside out like a wild beast held too long on its leash. Flashes of power lashed against his spirit as his mind nearly buckled under the assault on his very being. Great strikes rained down on him like bolts of lightning hurled from an angry and capricious god told of in the tales as old as man. He was forced to change and become something that could survive this attack on his existence.
Piece by piece, the building blocks of his body compressed, took in more and became something different than it had been. His spirit was forced to rise again and again, taking on the brunt of the punishing assault, scalding his very being under the immense forces unleashed on him. Each change tore at his soul and threatened to rend his mind and body. His only solace was the will that refused to go under. It would not break him. It could not break him.
The feeling of his mana pool expanding at an accelerated rate, fed by the Awakened Mana Core, ravenously feeding on the deluge of power coursing through his being, trying to drown him in an overwhelming flood. It grew until it felt close to bursting. Tears were starting to appear on his mana pool, so he did something foolish, something that was beyond his befuddled mind now and forced his will on reality, unleashing the excess threatening to burst his mana pool out on the mundane world.
While his eyes could not see, his aura guided him. Ambros created a rune of destruction. Anchoring the rune in a web of spell construct, intermingling theories from two different schools of Arcana, one ever evolving and one long forgotten. He poured his all into it, feeding it, using it as an outlet for the power that assaulted him until there was no more.
Strangely serene now, despite his ravaged state, he wasn't sure what he had created. It was an amalgamation of a spell construct and rune script, an abomination that should not be. Ambros could feel it hovering in front of him, menacing, powerful beyond anything he had ever created, but also incredibly unstable. Ambros reached out and plucked the string that held it in place, only to get knocked back on the ground moments later.
The contender has risen above the steps of the Neophyte
Questor Ambros Mardux
The Circle of Adepts awaits you
104 unspent attribute points converted
The contender may raise the grade of two seperat attributes during the next attribute allocation.
The contender is awarded 20,000,000 System points.
Interface updated
Interface v.1.0.2 implemented
Level set to: 0
Defying fate and overcoming your limitations is the path to greatness.
Grow, overcome, dominate.
You have been chosen.
Be honored, Adept.
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Watching as the Great One ran faster than a roethar at full gallop, Bulis shook his head with a tight grin. Yes, it would be a good day for battle. Turing to Heliodorus and said, “Signal to charge. We are not letting Ambros fight the enemy alone. Hear?” At Heliodorus's nod, he took a moment to bask in the clamor his fellow Agerans were making behind him. They were ready. They would cut down these giants as stalks of wheat in front of the honorable farmer's scythe.
Raising his spear height, the sun reflecting on its tip, drawing the eyes of his fellow soldiers, he shouted, “For the Queen and country!” As he charged towards the ogres that were still reeling from the Great One's mighty assault. Close on his heels, Heliodorus blew a long and thin horn to signal the charge. He heard the beat of spears against shields and voices raised in defiance of the enemy behind him. The very ground shook at the step of a thousand boots hitting the ground as one.
His last year of service, Bulis thought as he ran with his brothers and sisters towards battle. He would be taken off the rolls and given a plot of land to see him through whatever miserable existence awaited him. No, he would not settle down like an old man. Today would be his day to glory. He would rather fall on his own spear than walk off this battlefield alive. He deserved a warrior death, the Great One willing. Today, he would earn his place in his vaunted halls. Then, the world turned white with purple lines cutting through it.
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Ambros wasn't sure if the ringing in his ears or the blurred vision was the first thing he noticed, but any sensory input was welcome now. Crystal was sending him images of getting up for some reason. Ah, he was, in fact, lying down. In his limited experience, that was a bad idea during a battle. Sending his thank you to Crystal, he slowly rose to his feet, swaying as he squinted to spot the enemy that had yet to turn him into a spit roast over an open fire for some reason. Stupid ogres couldn't get anything right.
As his eyes cleared and the ringing in his ears slowly went away, he had to bling several times trying to make sense of the sight before him. There was nothing. No ruble, no ogres, no wall, just nothing. He stood on the edge of a cliff, a small one at least. The ground a few steps in front of him was cut away a few hundred steps down. The cut looked as smooth as a pane of glass. It looked like a rectangular box had been removed from the world in front of him. Somewhere between three hundred and four hundred steps deep and wide box of the world had simply been taken away. Further to his right and left, he could spot ogres clumping up to get away from the strange phenomenon. There were parts of them falling down the sides of the cliff now. The carcasses of ogres, cleaved in two, made their way down together with severed arms and legs.
When the first of them noticed him standing up, it said something to its fellows he didn't catch, but they were backing up even more. It was the first time he had seen true fear in the eyes of an ogre. Looking at the other side, the scene was pretty much identical. When he spotted Ogre Slayer lying close by, he was relieved that it hadn't fallen into the new hole in the wall.
Turning around, he saw thousands of Ageran soldiers who had stopped in their tracks. Spotting Tebaeus, Heliodorus, Bulis and Photius a hundred steps behind him. Heliodorus was holding a long, thin horn to his lips, not that he was blowing it or really doing much, but staring at Ambros. Clearing his sore throat, Ambros shouted, “Heliodorus, mind giving that a few more notes to continue this? Wouldn't mind making it back to supper,” Making sure his smile was wide despite how painfully stretched out his skin felt.
Light seemed to return to Heliodorus's eyes as his head started bobbing in agreement, and soon enough, a long, thin note was heard echoing around the field of battle, followed by more horns bringing the signal to charge once more.
Not really sure what he should be doing anymore, not that he was confident that he could do much at the moment with how broken he felt. He could hear the companies of phalanxes marching at a steady rhythm now, which was good. The headlong rush, while brave, would probably have been costly in lives far beyond what was acceptable. He wasn't sure what had taken hold of him to do something that foolish, but at least it seemed to have ended well, even if he had questions. A lot of questions.
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Eurycliedes was trying to make sense of what his eyes were telling him. Half the companies had taken it on themselves to start charing the ogre line at the top of the breach by the looks of it. Turning to his right, he ordered one of the adjuncts to go down there and figure out what had happened for the company commanders to deviate from the battle plan,
While he knew as well as anyone that any battle could be changed by the will of the gods, this was about to become a slaughter unless someone took control and had them form up in phalanxes with working war arrays. Removing his helmet to run a hand through his still thick black hair, Eurycliedes almost did something as unseemly as swearing out loud.
Then, the entire top of the breach turned white. A flash so bright it forced him to close his eyes even from as far away as the platform was situated. He could even feel the forces in play from where he was standing. It felt like the heavens had opened up and decided the only gift they had for the world was destruction. The ravaging winds of power forced him to take hold of the flimsy railing or suffer the indignation of falling on his back.
“Father!” He heard only to turn around and watch his son with a deathly white pallor pointing at something in the middle of the bright light. Squinting his eyes through the pain, he could see something forming in the center of the light. Purple lines were faintly visible at first until they grew brighter and brighter. It didn't take long for the lines to cut through, even the glaring light.
When the glare finally dimmed into nothing, he could see the strange markings in the air. It was an intricate design of straight lines within a purple glowing disc in the sky. It pulsed as if alive, barely contained like a wild animal. Below, he could just make out a man facing a half circle of ogres. “Ambros,” He thought. Nothing else came to mind that could create a disturbance like this, even if it was far beyond the power he had thought the man possessed.
Luckily, the companies seemed as stunned as everyone else because the wild charge to the top had stopped. Then, a pulse of force was released not from the design in the air but from the man standing below it, and as he fell backward by the force unleased, the designs within the disk stretched out in front of him in lines of purple light, and anything it touched was no more.
The ogres he could see in front of the man simply stopped existing from what he could see from his position, as did hundreds more on each in front of Ambros. There was no between. One moment, he stood in front of an army of ogres. The next moment, he was standing in front of nothing. The ogre army started up again a few hundred steps to his left and right.
Moments passed, and nothing moved. Every eye was on the eye, lying in front of something impossible. Something that should not be possible for any mortals in this day and age.
Eurycliedes knew this would bring trouble. While he had talked with and knew Amrbose's view on the gods. The man was not shy about expressing his disdain. It was part of the problem. The mystery cult that had sprung up around the man was only fueled by the fervor of his words and their long-standing disdain for the current ecclesiastic representatives of the gods.
While Eurycliedes could admit that the divide between the temples and the people had only been growing over the last centuries, and if he was being honest with himself, he knew it was largely driven by the greed of the priests to ammas more power and land at the cost of the regular citizens as the ruling family heads and the royalty did nothing. He was still a strong believer in the gods, and the chaos that would ensue if things grew violent between the citizens and the clergy was not to be underestimated.
Until now, his concerns were held in check by Ambros himself. Eurycliedes knew the man would come down on any cult that worshiped him in any way, like lightning from a clear sky. This could make things a lot more difficult, no matter what the man at its center thought of the matter. Word would spread.
This wasn't a show of physical might, as the moniker the Great One had come from, to honor him like the heroes of old. This was seen by thousands of eyes but beyond their understanding. This was a manifestation of force that the masses thought anyone but the gods was incapable of, and the worst part was that the lack of knowledge was by design.
The church leaders and the heads of the budding new refuge they had created so long ago had come together and purposefully kept people from reaching the powers Ambros displayed so readily. While he had read the transcripts from the time and could understand why they did it when they fled the old country, it may not be the right course to take anymore. “Troubling times,” Eurycliedes thought. “They were in for some troubling times indeed.”
Then he saw Ambros standing up, and with a signal, the companies started marching towards the silent line of ogres. To his immense relief, they marched in order.
----------------------------------------
Battle Award
1029 Exp
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
257,250 Sp
1029 Qp
Still standing, not daring to move just yet, Ambros simply glared at the ogres a few hundred steps away. Thankfully, it seemed enough because he was almost positive a strong gust of wind would turn him from a vertical to a horizontal person in short order.
The soldiers were close now. He could hear the commanders shouting a marching tune at the stomp of the unified feet across the rocky ground. The smell of blood was already thick in the air from the ogre pieces that had fallen into the ditch before him and those of the ogres that stood too close to the edge of whatever he had done. Most of them were bleeding out on the ground.
Turing his head almost made him fall from vertigo, but he wasn't about to completely tap out yet. He decided he was torn and slightly broken but mending. Mending fast as he was rapidly starting to see clearer and hear more, more than he had before, a lot more. He could see the individual veins on the neck of an ogre standing on the other side of the chasm behind four other ogres that still looked stupified.
Since no one wanted to come and beat him into a pulp right now, he brought up his System information.
Name: Ambros Mardux
Race: Human, variant. Grafted Primus modus, Sanguis Kronos,
Titles: Eques, Reaper Apprentice
Class: Arcanist
Level: 2
Experience: 333/706
System rank: Questor**
System points: 48,693,649
Circle: Adept
Meridian: 1/12 (??)
Body: ( 50 ) 75 ( E )
Mind: ( 50 ) 75 ( E )
Spirit: ( 50 ) 75 ( E )
Unspent attribute points: 6
Active Skill: Analyze ( E ), Meditation ( E ), Arcane Sight ( D ), Sanctum ( F )
Passive Skill: Awakened Mana Core ( F ), Revitalize ( E ), Omnilingual ( A ), Giant Slayer V ( E ), Toughness V ( F ), Adaptive Vision ( E )
Spells: Arcane Bolt ( E ), Arcane Shield ( D ), Control Heat ( E ), Control Earth ( D ), Control Wind ( E ), Control Water ( E ), Stasis ( E )
So Eku was right on both accounts. His level had reset when he became an Adept, and his previous attributes acted as a multiplier on his final attribute calculation. Nothing else seemed too strange to him, except steps had been replaced by meridian, and he apparently was half again as powerful as he had been moments before. Ambros wondered how his spells would work now that his level was back to the single digits. Oh, also, three attribute points for each level rather than two. Too numb to give this new information too much thought, Ambnros closed the System information and started feeling inside himself. Try to figure out how many changes had occurred in his mundane and Arcane self.
The first thing he noticed was his mana pool. It had gone from feeling like a lake to a sea. The cracks he could feel in the walls around it quickly ended any thoughts of using mana for the moment. Nope, best to just let that be. It was also where he found Crystal. It was wrapped around his mana pool, seemingly asleep, so he didn't poke Crystal too much before moving on to what really had him curious. What the hell was a meridian.
Turns out it was something incredibly exciting and something incredibly boring at the same time. Opening a point in his meridians to the Energy apparently wasn't the same as fully completing a meridian. The point he had been drilling through now had two new places where Energy was slowly making a path in both directions. One heading up and one heading down, where they would end up, he didn't know, but he could tell it would take a long time for it to clear the path to wherever it was heading at its current rate. Feeling well enough, he took a bit of the Energy he found in there and almost had his mind unravel from the amount of power that suddenly was in his grasp.
Apparently, while it didn't look like much, the little Energy that was constantly heading inside the open path he had made and went to help carve lines to wherever they were heading was a bit more than he was used to handling. While he still couldn't store large amounts of it, the constant draw of Energy far exceeded the sliver he had been poking at his entrance point for so long with, as in a drop of water to swimming pool difference in power.
He didn't dare use that much Energy yet to fight as Eku had shown him, but he did need to learn how to, which would take time and practice. A lot of practice.
Good thing he planned on taking a trip to the nearest System node once they had taken the ogre hold. He wasn't putting it off now that he could afford assisted mapping. He could even get something else if it caught his eye with the amount of System points he had amassed. Still, he was annoyed that more than a thousand dead ogres weren't enough to upgrade Reaper Apprentice. Then again, he hadn't gotten it from drowning ten times that in a mountain, either.
The soldiers were close now, so he raised Ogre Slayer high. From the corner of his eye, he could see the front of the marching phalanxes raising their spears in return. Then, every second soldier took one of the two javelins they held in their shield hand and took a few running steps before throwing the light spears at the ogre line. The air was thick with thrown javelins as the ones left behind did the same as the first group before the first volley hit the ogres, now rousing themselves and picking up rocks.
Everyone apparently knew the engagement plan better than him because he was surprised when there was no third or fourth volley. Instead, each phalanx stepped in place and raised their shields while quickly closing on the ogres, starting to retaliate with hurled stones.
Ambros could hear the chant of the phalanx commanders, keeping the soldiers in step even as he saw head-sized rocks deflected off shields or even killing a few outright when they hit a head. Still, they marched on the ogres like an unstoppable tide of shields and spears.
The ogres were ignoring him for some reason, which suited him fine. The sight of thousands of soldiers walking in step towards a common enemy was almost mesmerizing. When the commanders activated the war arrays, he felt it buzzed against his being. Deciding he had little to lose, Ambros waited until they were just a few steps from the ogre line and unleashed his aura on the ogres.
It must have gone through something lately because instead of startling the ogres, he saw a few just fall flat on their faces. Others simply froze up, and a few, a very small amount, started tearing at those behind them to escape.
The eastern army wasted no time and charged into the ogre line over the last few steps. Ambros still stood there observing the carnage about to unfold around him.
The crash of the two forces meeting was defining to his new hearing. Luckily, his increase in Body also increased his tolerance as the screaming and bellowing of wounded and dying humans and ogres started increasing.
The first line of phalanxes cut through the frozen ogre line and continued until they hit the fourth row of ogres. Those that stood on the percept of the former wall. From there, the fight would have been downhill, so he was sad to see the charge falter as more ogres made their way upward to help hold the line.
Still, the soldiers of Agera pushed forward and fought. Toppeling the larger ogres and swarming them with thrusts of their spears. Humans that failed to pull back into their lines behind the protection of their raised shields or agile enough to get out of the way when the ogre behind or to the side of a fallen comrade sought revenge were turned to pulp by the devastating force an ogre could unleash on its target. A few enterprising individuals had noted the ogre's most vulnerable part, its ankles. They would dart in and try to trip them up with their spears so their brothers and sisters-in-arms could finish off the hulking enemies.
Ambros watched in disgust as a particular large ogre reached out and plucked a lone soldier standing over a slain foe and put the soldier's head in its mouth before biting down. The legs of the victim kept kicking until a crunch could be heard all the way over where he was standing. Shuddering at the horrible way to die, he did a quick scan of his body but had to put aside any thoughts of joining the fray just yet unless he wanted to test out Revitalize that day. It was held off as an option if something bad happened. The Ageran phalanxes were gaining ground, so he could see it didn't look like a loss for now despite the carnage.
Closing his eyes momentarily, he tried envisioning what he had created during the beatdown the System gave him earlier. He was sure it had been the System despite its congratulations. He had forced a rune sequence to exist on the backdrop of a mana construct, and he had no idea how he had done it or even that it had been remotely possible. As far as he knew, different schools of Arcana just did not mix like that. It should, from all of his studies been impossible.
Not that he planned on recreating something like that any time soon. The amount of power needed simply wasn't available to him now, and he would probably burn out his mana channels, not to speak of the amount of Energy that had been put into creating the actual rune sequence. It was something that shouldn't exist, so, of course, it became one of the things he wanted to explore and study the most. It pulled at him almost as much as whatever he was tethered to back in the Ageran capital city.
He could feel it clearly now, unlike before he became an Adept. Something was waiting for him at the capital of these soldiers. Something he had been supposed to go to the last time he was there, but the pull hadn't been strong enough to be noticed by him then, or he had simply become sensitive enough to notice it. Now, it stood out like the sun, he could be blindfolded and turned around a hundred times, and he could still tell where the capital was.
Pulled out of his musing by the drum the ogres had been hitting during the vanguard's march, he looked around for what had changed in the few moments he had been lost in thought.
Nothing stood out immediately, but he couldn't see down slope leading into the ogre hold, so deciding he had enough rest for now. No matter how much his body was protesting, Ambros started walking to his left and making his way slowly to the front.
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Arcturus was finally rotated to stand in the front line. It had been almost half the turning of the glass since the two lines met in battle, but since his value was in his scouting ability, he often found himself at the back ranks of the phalanxes. Before he could fully gather himself, an ogre towering above him, even standing downslope from his position, raised its great club and swung it towards him. For a moment, he froze, but he felt his shield almost going up by itself as the the two fighting next to him raised theirs. The battle bond bound them together and made them more than the individual. Taking the hit straight on his shield, he could sense the impact, but it was braced by the two standing beside him as one of them struck low with her spear, the other one struck high, and Arcturus pushed at the ogre's belly with his shield while stepping forward.
As one, their attack hit, and the ogre toppled. Before it could catch itself and try to get back up, the designated hitters jumped out with just their spears from beneath Arcturus and his two comrade's shields and started plunging them into any vitals they could reach before scurrying back behind the shield line.
It had been so smooth and fast that an outsider could have been fooled into thinking they had been practicing this a thousand times. Each step had been guided by the bond each move was felt, and the best solution was found through their shared bond. It was exhilarating and strangely frightening to feel the intent and feelings of those around you like this.
He could swear he could feel his heart beating in his ears but soon realized the sound was coming further down inside the ogre lines, making their way upwards. The great beats continued, the sound almost a force of its own as it came closer and closer.
The next ogre to make its way to them stepped up fast and swung sideways against the shield of his companion on the left. He stepped in and helped brace the shield with his own and hit the underside of the great blade with the top of his shield so it would slide harmlessly over his companion's head. Stepping again in, he thrust his spear at the ogre's calves, trying to get it off balance at the same time as he saw another soldier a few places further down step forward and kick its other ankle, followed by a third one stabbing the same ankle moments later, making the ogre fall on its side.
The hitters were on the fallen ogre in the blink of an eye, already running before the ogre had hit the ground. The four hitters stabbed as fast as they could at any spots they could reach, but they had been too slow this time. A maul roared as it moved across their vision like a blur and tore into the chest of a hitter.
The poor woman was lifted and thrown across the battlefield. Arcturus could see the hole left behind by the maul even as the ogre drew its maul back. It was one of the armored ones. Larger and much tougher than their brethren.
Despite himself, he felt fear enter his heart. It was also coming from the people around him, which certainly didn't help. However, they soon recovered. The soldiers of the phalanx were more than one. They were the combined might of the phalanx, and should he fall, his brothers and sisters would take his place.
The thought was surprisingly freeing, and he almost stepped toward the ogre before realizing that was not the plan. The plan was to weather a hit and then strike. Bracing himself as he saw the maul lifted above, he only hoped his wife would know of his bravery and sacrifice on this day as the maul made its way toward him. He could feel the others ready to strike once his life had been paid to stop the ogre's attack.
A hand reached past his head and above his shield, and Arcturus stared in wonder as the maul was halted in its tracks. It was as if it had hit an immovable object. Behind him, he heard a familiar and beloved voice that said, “Arcturus! I thought I recognized you. It's been a while, my friend. Wife and kids doing well?” He could only manage a grateful nod as he felt the same emotion from those he was bonded to. It almost overwhelmed him and his bonded phalanx. Looking at the ogre, it seemed to be trying to pull its maul back from the grip of the Great One. “His hand protects!” He thought, feeling the same reverence reverberate from the bond. He fought against the urge to kneel before the Great One, during the battle.
The Great one flashed him a smile as he stepped past, still holding the maul in place. Arcturus could swear he heard the Great One whisper, “This can't be right,” As he looked at the head of the maul he was holding.
Faster than Arcturus could follow, the Great One stood close to the ogre and held its wrist in a hand. He could hear the ogre's bones breaking as the Great One closed his fist slowly over its wrist. The outrage and pain that bellowed from the ogre's mouth was almost deafening. “Oh, shus you. Stop whining. You would have done the same in my place.” The Great One calmly told the ogre before taking the maul from it, and suddenly, the maul was planted down into the ogre's belly. A bloody gaping wound going from where its head used to be to its scrotum.
The Great One turned his head and looked back at them with a gentle smile before saying. “I think I have rested enough now. Why don't you all come up behind me and clean up while I stretch my limbs a bit? We can switch around later, and I'll clean up after you,” Before turning back and heading straight for the hundreds of armored-clad ogres that were making their way up the slope. In the middle of the ogres, Arcturus could see a great drum.