Sam looked at the holo screen, a large army of mechs could be seen. They were lined up in columns spanning far and wide, the arachno tanks were positioned for the enemy to be in range. The plan was simple, the human army was taking a road that cut through a small forest. Once they were completely surrounded by foliage, the bio goblins would charge at them from both sides. It did not matter if they succeeded or not, as long as they did enough damage, it would be a success. Something felt off about this human army and Sam wasn't taking any chances. He then checked his tier 3 core shards.

[9,456 TIER 3 CORE SHARDS COLLECTED]

"Ugh, so close. Why did they need to attack now of all times?" Sam said, cursing his luck at how close he was to unlocking a Mark 4 mech.

After the hanzo was taken out, every hanzo scout he sent was destroyed. Whoever this leather dressed stranger was, they were definitely going to be a huge problem.

Looking at the screen again, he switched to the view of a bio goblin. They slowly made their way to the marching army, they soon came into view of the enemy. Sam was about to give the order to charge and slaughter them, but before he did that. Arrows rained from the human army and he saw that they had a defensive shield wall set up.

"This is getting annoying, I made sure to kill their scouts. They must have someone or people who are good at detecting their surroundings." Sam said with an annoyed look.

Bio goblins charged from both sides of the road, and were still cut down by the rain of arrows. They finally made it to the shield wall, but it was such a low number that it wasn't enough to pressure the human soldiers.

"Let the new fighters play, I think this will be a good chance to see what those prisoners are useful for." Sam ordered, what he was talking about, was the human prisoners that weren't able to be rehabilitated and failed the test in the prison.

The human soldiers behind the shield walls lowered their guard at how easy its been repelling the enemy attack. Suddenly a loud shrieking roar could be heard from both sides. One shield bearer peeked through the slit of his helmet and his body started shaking uncontrollably. A towering grey skinned humanoid figure was walking slowly towards them. Arrows only managed to bounce off its hardened skin, and managed to piss it off more. It had claws the size of arms, extremely muscular, mouth filled with razor sharp fangs, and bright red pupils that glowed like torches. It would be fine if there was only one of them, but more than 50 were on each side.

"Focus the new big ones! Don't falter men, they are only trying to pick you apart with fear!" Yelled a veteran captain, he grabbed a nearby soldiers spear and sent it flying straight to the mutated humans head.

It was a direct hit to the forehead and made the abominations head tilt back.

"Thats our captain for you!"

"The captain is right, they aren't any different then the rest!"

"If that's all they have then we will be ending this war in no time boys!"

Every soldier was in high spirits with the captains words and actions.

"These idiots haven't even confirmed if it's dead yet, let the rampage begin." Sam laughed while looking at the screen.

All the laughing and happy cheering stopped once the soldiers noticed that the thing wasn't dead. In fact, it lowered its head and they saw that the spear only managed to penetrate a few inches into its forehead. The mutated human made an angry expression as it crushed the spear with ease. Before they could get into position, it bolted straight for them. The strong shield wall that they were so proud of was nothing but paper to it. With one swipe of its claws, it cut the captains body to chunks of meat. After that, it started slaughtering everything in site, with its long claws, it made the soldiers into kebabs. Not just here, but all over the road you could see the mutants causing a massacre. A chaotic hell was the best description and now with no shield wall, the remaining bio goblins joined. When a soldier saw a mutant that had its claws occupied, it tried to stab it through the heart. Only to find that his sword bounced off its skin and knicked the blade. Seeing the unbalanced soldier, the mutant human chomped on his head. The soldier could only flail in pain as his agony was extended because of the iron helmet that protected him. Soon enough, the helmet caved in with his skull and the mutant ripped his head along with his spinal cord still attached.

"Rip and tear! Rip and tear!" Sam chanted, while he was enjoying the carnage.

He was really impressed with the mutated humans that Otto designed himself, before he could enjoy more of it. Two of the mutants were sent flying with deep cuts on their bodies. Once again, it was the leather dressed man as before.

"Now this is a party, what kind of fresh hell did all of you come from?" Said the man, he was surprised to see the abominations started getting back up, all of their cuts were healing at a fast rate. "Haha it wouldn't be fun if you all died so easily, how about round two?"

Before the mutants could even move, the man moved his arms and an invisible force assaulted them. They put their arms up to guard themselves but seconds later, perfectly cut lines of blood started appearing on their bodies. They fell apart into chunks and never got back up.

"Come on! Tsk, they got my hopes up for nothing." The man sounded disappointed as he walked away and joined the fight. With his help, the mutant humans were taken care of in a few moments.

At the end, close to 5,000 human soldiers were killed. Only leaving a small dent at their numbers, and buying Sam some time. He ended up wasting five times that amount of bio goblins, and the new mutated humans. Sam was really pissed off, those new human mutants were suppose to be at the gold rank level. He wasn't even able to knock his hat off his head, that just made him more worried. Should he do a tactical retreat? But leaving the county would only have the locals lose faith in him and more. He always had a sense of pride to never surrender or retreat. Sam checked his core shard count again.

[9,562 TIER 3 CORE SHARDS COLLECTED]

"Nostromo, order the dungeon teams to get me more tier 3 core shards immediately." Sam ordered, he had a feeling this guy was a much higher rank than gold. This might be his first time fighting a black gold rank.

"I've relayed the order sir, but the dungeons need time to resupply its monster stock." Nostromo reported.

As long as the human army didn't reach the main mech army in 3 hours then he would be fine. After an hour of making more mechs with the exp he has accumulated, he was hopeful that more then 500,000 mechs would be more than enough to deal with the situation.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Sir, the human army has finally come out of the forest path and into view." Nostromo reported.

"What!? How the hell did they get here so fast!?" Sam was surprised at the speed of recovery of his enemy, after that ambush attack.

Yet, here he was looking at the screen as they made a military formation in front of his army. Once they were done lining up, a small party of cavalry made their way to his side. He also sent a small party to meet them, once he got to see who they were, he was a little surprised.

"What the hell is this cowardly brother of mine doing here?" Sam was confused at why the second prince, the one who plotted his assassination from the beginning was here. He also noticed the leather dressed stranger next to him.

"Pay respects to the future king of the vanmeister kingdom, his royal majesty, Romain Vanmeister. You invaders should feel honored to be in the presence of one as esteemed as himself!" Said a middle aged man that was in a similar get up as general palmar. "Where is your master!? That traitor and bastard of the kingdom, he is truly cowardly to not show himself right now!"

The second prince just pushed his chest out, acting cocky and arrogant. Sam just felt like he was losing brain cells listening to these idiots. Why not try one of the new features of the upgraded base.

"Nostromo, do a full body scan and project my image on one of the energy mechs." Sam said.

Nostromo did a full body scan of Sam and projected it on to the closest energy mech in the front. From the second princes groups point of view, it looked like one of the tall mechs was slowly morphing into a human. Starting from the top, all the way to the bottom. This brought a large amount of gasps and surprised looks from the humans. The second prince quickly realized who it was, but it was hard to make out at first. The skinny and weak looking bastard brother he once knew, has now turned to a more muscular and confident man. He didn't admit it, but he was starting to feel envious at thinking that this bastard was better looking than him now.

"Haha bastard you've finally shown yourself, what kind of secret have you uncovered in those ruins you found?" Romain the second prince asked.

"What kind of bullshit are you spouting you idiot? This is my own power, jealous much? Why don't you go back to the capital and go hide behind our father. That's all your good at, ain't it? You were too chicken to kill me yourself, that you sent someone to do it for you?" Sam taunted and mocked his older brother.

"Listen you little runt! Father has given his 'true' children a challenge, that if any of us who brings you back alive, will be named king. So be honored that he has spared your life, if it were up to me, I would have had some of my men have their way with you. They like men and woman, in fact, that's what I did to the whore mother of yours. You should have seen her, a true whore until the end of her miserable life." Romaine said with a sadistic smile on his face.

Altough it sounded terrible, but Sam didn't care much about Samuel's mother. Still, once he entered this body, he still had some feelings for what Samuel used to care about. It might be side effects of sharing a body that wasnt his. Right now, he was feeling a deep boiling rage inside but he didn't show it.

"Are you done with your stupid monologue? I'm growing bored of this little show. Be grateful and get out of my sight, otherwise this will be your grave site." Sam looked at him dead in the eyes, not feeling fazed at what Romain said.

This just infuriated Romain even more, he didn't like the way he was being looked down on.

"Don't feel so confident brat, I'm sure you haven't met my new friend here, let me introduce to you Butch Harrelson an elite black gold rank from the Kalimbor empire." Romain said, as he casually revealed his betrayal of his kingdom.

Sam noticed that none of the men around said anything of this. They must be really loyal to this idiot brother of his, now it really made things even complicated that a real black gold joined the fight.

"Mighty kind words, but i'm just a simple man from the empire. You got some interesting talents kid, let me make you a better offer. His highness the emperor, is willing to give you sanctuary and land to own if you willingly give up the secrets that you have found in the ruins of the ancients. What do you say?" Butch said, ignoring the bewildered look that Romain was making.

"Butch, you know I have to bring him back to my father! This isn't part of the dea-" Romain fell off his horse as he struggled to breathe. Butch let go of him, and he finally gasped for air. His attendants helped him get back on his horse.

"The emperors orders are the law, so don't ever try to go against him. Be grateful that I didn't kill you and that you are more useful alive." Butch angrily disciplined the second prince.

Sam finally realized that this Butch character had the ability to manipulate the air around him. He was glad that he was not here and was back at the base, even if he was already a gold rank, he would be at the mercy of this man.

"I'm going to have to refuse your offer, but you can tell the emperor that after I'm done with this kingdom. I'm coming for him next." Sam said, not wavering or breaking eye contact from Butch.

"Haha! Well said young man, I like someone with a real spine on their back. You remind me of the emperor when he was younger, I hope you can stay true to your words." Butch said, as he made his way back to the human army with the second prince.

Once everything was settled, Sam disconnected the holo projection.

"Start bombarding them immediately, don't hold back. I want every available unit that can do long range, to release everything they have, right now." Sam ordered, he wanted to reduce the enemy's numbers as soon as possible. So he could focus on Butch more.

Loud thunderclaps could be heard from the arachno tanks, the human army could only blink before their columns were torn apart. Followed by Missile barrages by the titan mechs and flying buzzards.

"Shield bearers, use your defensive skills! Do not falter, archers and mages return fi-" one of the commanders tried to take control of the troops, but was sniped through the head by one of the .50 cal sniper androids.

The front lines of the human army crumbled, no matter how many defensive barriers the mages put up, they were just torn down by the constant barrage.

"Are you going to help or not? We underestimated this bastards weapons, we haven't even traded blows with them yet!" Romain said to Butch, while the latter was just impressed with the interesting weapons of war.

"Shut your trap kid, of course the deal is to make sure we win against your brother. Now, let's see what these things can handle." Butch said, as he clapped his hands together and a visible air wall could be seen covering the entire human army.

STORM PALM

All explosive shells, missiles, bullets, and arrows were deflected and returned to the mech army. The strong air pressure was strong enough to push them back, a couple thousand mechs were scrapped but over all they were still fine. The arachno tanks tried using their strongest skills to penetrate the wind barrier, but it still wasn't enough. Going against a black gold rank was an uphill fight.

While Butch was maintaining the wind barrier, he also was preparing a strong offensive attack. He personally crafted this skill, when he was sent to defend the borders of the empire against the dwarven airships.

"Hey kid, if you want to make this quicker, use your fire ability that your family is so famous for and combine it with my attack." Butch said, but Romaine hesitated because he was only a silver rank and didnt know if he would be of help. "Just do it, this is something that we like to do back at the empire."

Large dark clouds soon started covering the blue sky, and out of those clouds an enormous vortex appeared. It quickly descended on top of the mech army, it was a massive tornado that picked up all mechs nearby. As if it couldn't get any more worse, it soon caught on fire. Tens of thousands of mechs were being destroyed by the minute, even the flying Buzzard flying abilities were useless. This was the worst case scenario for Sam, if he didn't do anything right now, it would be a complete defeat. He once again looked at his core shard count.

[9,589 TIER 3 CORE SHARDS COLLECTED]

He still didn't have enough, so he used his last resort and looked at the number of bottom tier core shards.

[9,455 TIER 1 CORE SHARDS]

[4,237 TIER 2 CORE SHARDS]

He hasn't had time to stockpile more like last time, but he hoped luck was on his side.

[FUSE]

[945 TIER 2 CORE SHARDS FUSED SUCCESSFULLY]

[5,182 TIER 2 CORE SHARDS COLLECTED]

[FUSE]

[414 TIER 3 CORE SHARDS FUSED SUCCESSFULLY]

[10,003 TIER 3 CORE SHARDS COLLECTED]

He felt relieved to be able to barely make the required amount, he quickly settled down and opened up the Mark 4 mech list.

"Sir, we have just lost half our numbers. Please take necessary actions, or the mech army will be destroyed." Nostromo reported.

With even more pressure on his back, Sam just took a quick glance at his first choice on the list and it was perfect for this situation.

[Description: Mark 4 Frost Mech. Overpowering ice elemental abilities are only the tip of the iceberg for this mech. Equipped with metal gauntlets that cover his arms as well as a sick looking martial arts armor, he almost reminds you of a certain character from a popular video game. Skills are Instant freeze, ice meteorite, glacial barrier, and arctic domain. Cost:10,000,000 EXP]

[UNLOCK]

Altough it was extremely expensive, he was happy with this choice. He went over to the holo table and hovered his palm over the spot where the fire tornado was formed.

"Let's see if this is exciting enough for you Butch!" Sam said with a grin on his face. "Your name will be Ymir, the first of your kind and the one they will remember."

Back at the battlefield, the human army was cheering at the destruction. Almost half an hour ago they were being overpowered by the enemies weapons but now the tides have turned to their favor. In the far back, Romain was glad he betrayed his kingdom. Seeing this amount of power only assured him of his choice with choosing the empires side.

"Butch, how much more until this is over with?" Asked Romain.

"Patience kid, we need to make sure that..wait" Butch went silent and snapped his head to the other side. Romain tried to ask why he stopped talking but Butch just ignored him.

Every person on the human army side had their eyes wide open as they witnessed the massive fire tornado completely vanish. As if a god just blew it away, not a single lick of fire was left. What was even more odd, was that snow started falling from the sky. After the tornado stopped, a large clearing was formed in the middle of the mech army. Directly in the middle of that clearing was a dark blue figure, he was tall enough where it was able to be spot from the other side. Looking at this imposing figure made every human get a chill up their spine.

"Haha now we're talking! You didn't disappoint me kid." Butch said with a wild grin.

"Butch what happened, who in the hell is that and how did he manage to stop our combined attack!?" Romain said with a hint of fear in his eyes.

Butch turned to answer him, but before he could say anything, a loud howling and haunting voice could be heard from the other side.

"I AM YMIR, FIRST OF MY NAME AND THE SON OF THE GREAT MACHINE MONARCH, AND YOU WILL FEEL THE COLD EMBRACE OF DEATH HUMANS!!!"