Pain lances through my body, and I fall to the ground with a loud THUMP as millions of nanites pop and crackle from the surge of electricity traveling through them, falling from my body like a black dust and joining the soil below.
"Warning!" The woman's voice echoes in my head. "Electrical surge detected, adaptation in progress!" But I hardly hear her as the pain dulls my senses.
My nanites continue to crackle and sizzle for what feels like hours, but in reality only seconds pass as I endure the pain.
Suddenly the lightning stops, and I look up towards the wizard, only to see him making love to the earth.
He was now laying on his stomach, with his expensive orange and green cloak now covered in bloody mud from the battlefield. Standing above him is Reka's father, who was now holding the wizard's staff and pressing his face into the mud with his foot.
"You shouldn't take your eyes off of your enemies wizard." Reka's father spat. "Just because we don't use magic, it doesn't mean we can't fight."
While he holds the wizard down, I slowly get back on my feet, as Reka's mother attempts to lift my heavy frame, causing her eyes to bulge out of her head with the effort.
As I regain my footing, the army around us backs away once more, having decided to leave the wizard to his own fate rather than get within striking range of me now that I'm on my feet.
Once I'm standing again, I walk over to Reka's father and offer the man a nod of graditude.
He hands the wizard's staff to me, which I absorb, and I notice some peculiar science involved with the staff.
From just a glance, It appeared no more than a large wooden stick embedded with yellow gemstones. But after absorbing the weapon, and stripping it it down to its' base components, I now could see that there is more than meets the eye with these magical gems.
The wooden stick seems to be a simple way to secure the gems in a usable form, while the yellow gems within have a far more complicated relationship with the world around us.
I could feel jolts of electricity sparking off of the gems if they were moved, causing thousands of nanites to fry and fall away from my body. It seems that if the gems are agitated or moved through the air in a certain manner, they can generate large currents of electricity on command.
I now realize that if we could find a large vein of these gems to mine, we would have practically unlimited power generation for anything we could dream of.
"What do you want to do with him?" Reka's father says while pointing down to the wizard on the ground and breaking my line of thought.
"I suggest killing him, or at least taking him prisoner." He continues. "No sense in just letting him go free after trying to kill us."
"You're right." I respond before turning to the army surrounding us. "We'll take him as a prisoner but first I have some unfinished business to take care of."
After a nod from Reka's father, I look around at the scared men who surrounded us, no doubt on the verge of routing should I begin an assault against them.
"If you let us leave here peacefully I won't have to kill anymore of you." I say as I loudly address the soldiers. "Return to your country and live another day."
"We can't!" Says a man deep within the crowd. "They'll kill us if we retreat! Better to die with honor than be executed in front of our families!"
While he speaks many men around him mumble in agreement, seemingly made up their minds on the matter.
"What if I could offer you something else?" I say loudly while slowly turning in a circle to lay eyes on each fearful face. "What if you had a chance to start anew in another land? A safe land for your families, ruled by a fair leader who would never ask you to throw away your lives?"
As I spoke many of the men seemed to be interested, talking in hushed tones and sharing looks before a voice spoke up from the back.
"How are we supposed to get our families? If we don't win this battle we'll be executed, and if we desert the battlefield our families will be slaughtered!"
"Don't worry, I have a plan!" As I finished speaking I beckoned the men to move closer and listen to what I had to say, while the wizard continued to lay on the ground in defeat.
After a short while, the group broke apart, with Reka's parents dragging the wizard to the ridge on the far side of the battlefield where I had initially entered, and the army formed neat columns with myself at the head opposite of the Magus Empire's army.
After the wizard had been fully dragged to safety, I bellow towards the army behind me. "Remember the plan! I'll go in first, then you come and mop up!" After I finished speaking the men behind me started to beat their swords against their shields with a steady rhythm, encouraged by having a monster like myself fighting on their side.
With the thump thump thump of swords against shields signaling the start of my plan, I begin to jog towards the Magus army which sat two miles in front of me atop a muddy hill at the edge of the battlefield.
As I jog I finally finish absorbing all but one of the lighting crystals from the wizards staff and I get a notification from the woman in my head.
"Superconductivity has been unlocked, allowing you to channel electricity through your nanites without sustaining damage!" She announced cheerfully. "You have also absorbed the ability Electromagnetic Manipulation, allowing you to generate immense currents of electricity using the planet's magnetosphere!
These abilities sound extremely useful and I'm rearing to test them out, however, I reach my destination on the battlefield before I can think of all the applications I could use these abilities for, and I come to a stop 20 feet away from the Magus army.
"Stop right there!" A man in ornate, polished armor called out from atop a horse at the front line. "State your business warrior, we do not recognize which country's colors you wear."
"I've come to parley on the behalf of the Eastern Empire." I explained. "I am a hired mercenary from the Federation of Humanity, a country past the jungle near the town of Erstan and therefore have no ties of loyalty to either side of this battle, making me a neutral representative."
"Very well." The man said as he dismounted his horse and walked forward to meet me. "I will accept this parlay, however, you still haven't given me your name warrior."
"My apologies. I am Officer Clark of the Federation of Human Purity. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I say while sticking my hand out in greeting.
"Well met." He replies while taking my hand and shaking it firmly. "I am Magus Persal, General of the Third Magus Army. Now, let's get down to business. What do they want?"
"The Eastern Empire is requesting your complete surrender General." I say matter-of-factly.
"And why should I do that?" Persal said with a laugh. "I saw how weak you were to lightning magic despite your size. What's stopping me from lopping off your head here and now and charging down the hill to mop up the rest of that sorry army?"
"I would advise against that General." I say before moving closer to him until I'm fully towering over him. "I may be the messenger, but I don't take threats lightly."
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"Very well." He replies without missing a beat. "I won't kill you now, but I refuse your offer of surrender. Now scurry on back to the Eastern Empire before I begin my charge."
I bow slightly towards the General before turning and walking 40 paces back down the hill before stopping abruptly.
"What are you waiting for warrior?!" The General shouted from atop his horse. "Move out of the way before I charge over you!"
I smile internally before turning around to face the General once more, holding two belt fed, large caliber machine guns in my hands, fed by long belts of brass ammunition that seemed to disappear into my chest.
Before the General can react, I squeeze the triggers on the guns and send a spray of 30 caliber bullets hurtling towards his army.
As the guns fire close to a thousand rounds per minute, the bullets punch through steel armor like paper, sending blood, bone fragments, and shrapnel into the men behind the front line, causing a domino effect of damage.
The General regains his bearings and starts barking out orders to the army, commanding the cavalry to charge my position and the infantry to follow.
After the few hundred cavalry still alive began charging with the infantry following, the General pulled out a similar staff to the one the lighting wizard had used and begin waving it around and chanting strange words.
After he finished chanting, a lighting bolt erupts from the end of the staff and crosses the distance between us in an instant, before striking my chest.
However, instead of feeling pain like before, the surge of electricity dances around on the surface of my body before traveling into the ground.
The General stares in surprise at me, no doubt confused by the lightning having no effect.
I smile internally before reabsorbing my guns into my arms and facing my body towards the cavalry approaching my position.
As they continue to charge, I focus on the magnetic field permeating the air around me. I can feel it flowing like a stream of power, passing through my body and into the air.
I focus on that stream and command my nanites to start siphoning power from it. As they leech off of its' power, I can feel sparks starting to form on the surface of my body and attempt to enter the ground, but I don't let them, instead I direct them to flow through my body like a whirling tornado of power, thrashing and spinning faster and faster while I absorbed more from the air.
Finally, after I felt like I had hit my limit, I focus on the line of cavalry that drew dangerously close and point my index finger on each hand towards the horses.
And just like flipping a switch, I guide the twirling tornado through my chest, down my arms, and out my finger, draining all of the power from within me in just a millisecond.
With a massive BOOM of thunder, a huge bolt of lightning arcs from each of my fingertips and travels the last ten feet before making contact with the cavalry.
When it hits them, it arcs in a chain from man to man, frying human and horse alike as it travels down the line.
After only a couple of seconds the lightning had made its' way through the entire line of horses, leaving mounts and charred armor scattered across the ground in front of me.
Having witnessed this, the infantry who had been bravely charging behind their brothers, now began to run at a much less enthusiastic pace until they finally stop about twenty feet away from me.
"Last chance General." I call out loudly. "Surrender now or suffer a crippling defeat."
The General gives me his answer when another lighting bolt shoots out from the tip of his staff and impacts me harmlessly.
"Very well." I say before turning to the men surrounding me who shrink back from the intensity of my gaze.
I once again begin to build up a charge in my chest, but it comes much faster this time. Instead of nearly 30 seconds like last time, it only takes me close to five seconds to build a full charge and point my fingers at the men in front of me.
With another BOOM, I release the charge inside of me and lightning runs free through the thousands of men in front of me.
The charred armor stands upright for a short while, as if its' occupants hadn't realized they'd died yet, before over a thousand of them fell over at once and came to rest upon the charred grass of the hill.
I repeated the charge and release four more times, killing thousands with each release of lightning, until the only troops left standing were the General and a small group of 30 mages at the rear.
The General by now, had dismounted his horse and stood in front of me with his sword in his right hand, and staff in the left.
No words were exchanged before the General began to charge with a mighty yell.
I charged up a lighting bolt at a quarter power and released it into his chest, but to my surprise, a thin membrane of small hexagons materialized just over the surface of his armor and reflected the magic away from him.
Unfortunately for the group of support mages, his armor sent the bolt straight towards them. It spread through the whole group, and being only a quarter power, simply knocked them out instead of killing them.
As the group of mages collapsed behind him, the General seemed to not even notice, continuing his charge and laughing maniacally.
When he reaches me, he swings his sword towards my ribs at an angle, attempting to penetrate what he thought were gaps in my thick armor, and I allowed his sword to penetrate, causing his eyes to light up with glee.
He makes an attempt to pull his sword from my body but finds himself unable to do so, as I had firmly clenched the blade with my nanites and begun to absorb it.
He makes several more attempts at removing the blade, even going as far as to brace his foot against my leg and tug against the blade with all his might before he stops and looks up at me.
I merely laugh and swat him with a back handed slap, sending him flying several feet backwards and leaving the sword to fully disappear within my chest.
He scrambles to his feet, his shoes slipping in the bloodstained grass before he finally is able to stand again.
He grabs the staff from the ground and points it at me, making an attempt to cast another spell. That is, until I appear behind him.
I grab him by his neck with one hand from behind, my massive gauntlet easily wrapping around the delicate flesh.
I lift him up from the ground and slowly begin to squeeze, not enough to cause any real damage, but just enough to restrict the blood flow to his brain.
Now completely helpless and fearing his fate, the General begins to wildly flail his arms and legs about, doing a fairly decent impression of chicken with its' head cut off while his brain fights for oxygen.
It doesn't take very long for him to stop struggling and pass out, and after he does, I release my grip and allow him to fall unceremoniously to the ground in a heap.
I don't really care about the General to be honest, but the membrane his armor had produced earlier seems extremely useful for defensive purposes.
I carefully remove the General's armor, leaving him laying on the ground in nothing but a tunic and his underwear, and begin to absorb the pieces of armor.
After I finish, and the General is starting to stir again, I get a notification from the woman as she speaks cheerfully.
"Armor properties absorbed. You've unlocked the ability Electromagnetic Shielding, this will allow you to shield yourself with a smaller version of the planet's extremely strong magnetic field and protect against attacks!"
Yup, this will definitely make my life easier.
After I finish listening to the woman, the General is now fully away and has begun to slowly crawl away, as if he thought I wouldn't notice him.
I grab him by the collar of his shirt and grab his wrists and ankles with my other hand, forming a pair of plasteel shackles on each before dropping him back to the ground with a grunt.
I turn away from the General and look out towards the thousands of armored bodies surrounding us and get to work immediately.
Over the next 30 minutes I absorb every single dead soldier or horse, regaining nanites I had lost to the initial lightning or had spent making ammo for the machine guns, and completely clearing the battlefield. Leaving only charred grass as evidence of the previous battle.
Right as my nanites finish returning to me and increase my mass by over 15,000 and my height by another 10 feet, the support mages begin to rise from their lightning induced slumber.
As they slowly wake, I pick up the General and carry him over the them, placing him as an example in front of the group who was now rising to their feet.
"Unless you want to end up like him, drop the staffs and run away." I say as I point at the bloody, half naked General before them.
The mages need no further encouragement and drop everything that could be used as a weapon, with some even stripping down to their underwear before they all run as fast as they can in the direction of the nearest town.
With that taken care of, I absorb all of the items they had dropped, taking in several new kinds of magic gems that I would have to wait to study until I returned to our base and a whole load of magic staffs and expensive cloaks.
After completing this I collect the General and sling him over my shoulder before jogging back towards the Easter Empire's army.
When I arrive, all of the men raise their swords and spears to the sky and cheer for me as until I stop in front of them.
"Now you can all go home and tell your families of your victory!" I call out loudly, inspiring more cheers from the men. "Any of you who wish to join me should travel to the town of Erstan with their families. I will meet you there in two weeks time and guide you to your new home. Now, I must leave you and attend to my own task."
After I finish speaking, I jog over the two waiting Beast Folk atop a ridge.
When I reach them, I set the general on the ground and the two Beast Folk move to greet me.
"Thank you again for your help." Reka's father says as they both bow. "We would have been dead for sure if you hadn't shown up!"
"Think nothing of it." I respond. "I was just doing a favor for someone in my employ."
"By the way." Reka's mother speaks up. "I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves. I'm Sheshri, and this is my husband Reshin." She says as she gestures to herself and her husband.
"And I'm Officer Clark, but you can just call me Clark if you'd like." I say.
"Now that introductions are sorted, we should probably get moving. I'm sure your children are eager to see you again."
After I finish speaking Sheshri and Reshin both nod, and I sling the lightning wizard and the General over my shoulder and we begin to walk back the way I came, following a trail of torn up dirt that I had left behind me on the run over.