Revelate is now Level 10!
Revelate is now Level 11!
Congratulations, Revelate has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Sadness, pity, and no small amount of anger kindled in Aurelian’s gut at the information his Revelate skill revealed. The earlier thoughts of malicious and deliberate intent behind the corruption only surged higher with what he saw, and Aurelian felt his features twist into a grim scowl.
“This shit has to end, Bahamut. This sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed to exist.”
I feel an itch between my wings. Something is aware of us, Aurelian.
Aurelian glanced at his companion in momentary surprise, and then snapped his head up at the sudden sound of a wheezing laugh.
“What have we heeeeeere…?” a voice called from somewhere unseen.
It sounded like sandpaper rubbing together, or like a dissonant attempt at a melody that had been too badly corroded to create pleasant music. “A little snack and… a dragon? How fascinating!”
Dragon’s Resolve flared to life, and what momentary trepidation he had felt was immediately replaced by something more potent: revulsion, and rage.
The voice belonged to a twisted thing, Aurelian knew instinctively. Something about it made him want to grind his teeth, and snarl with equal vehemence. The Calamity Core within him revved like an engine, and he felt a fundamental revulsion and opposition fill his soul. The creature that spoke was unnatural, in a way that spurred his deepest senses to demand it be excised from the world.
“Why don’t you come and find out, fuckhead!” Aurelian shouted back viciously while cycling his mana, and scanning the boughs of the corrupted Manawoods rapidly.
“Oh, but where is the fun in so simplistic an approach?” the sickening voice crooned in question. “Where is the pleasure in so easy and swift a meal? The flavour must be… enjoyed.”
“I’ve got your fucking enjoyment right here!” he snarled while lifting his Crest with an emotive shake of the blade. “Come and get it, you piece of shit!”
“Such bold vitriol, and from such a young creature. We shall have our fun, little morsel, but first you must prove your mettle against my puppets.”
Aurelian’s jaw locked at the words, and he glanced at Bahamut at the same moment as a plethora of shrieking, supernaturally projected wails of hatred erupted throughout the area, and skeletons began to appear among the corrupted Manawoods.
“Go high and stay out of reach,” he instructed the dragon quickly, “and no heroics. I know you’re strong, but you know what Bael’tharax said; your scales aren’t strong enough to resist them en masse yet.”
I am not a coward, Aurelian!
“It’s not about being a coward, Bahamut, it’s about being smarter than your enemy!” he shot back while taking up a defensive stance. “Go!”
The dragon growled, but did as instructed after throwing him a narrow-eyed glance of disgruntlement. The hatchling’s legs bent, and with a flap of his already-impressive wings Bahamut launched himself upward and into the air, beating downward twice before finding claw-assisted purchase upon the branches of a nearby Manawood.
Aurelian’s attention shifted from Bahamut after he confirmed the dragon’s position in the tree nearby, and instead he turned to face the imminent threat of the massing skeletons.
The first thing he noticed, and with a spike of wariness, was that they were not the same as the previous iterations. These were more properly armoured, fully armed, and were coated in the corrupted mana essence littering the arboretum’s floor.
It almost seemed to pulse on them like a twisted imitation of life-giving energy, and he could tell immediately that these new enemies were a level above anything he’d faced.
The glowy shit was a pretty good indicator of that, usually.
Revelate!
Name: Essence-Drenched Skeletal Soldier
Race: Undead
Level: 33
Tier: Initiate
Health: 960/960
Description: This undead soldier has been saturated in the viscous ichor of a corrupted Manawood, and has emerged more potent and deadly as a result. Though still as brittle as others of its ilk, the corrupted essence saturating its skeletal superstructure allows this creature to do battle with a ferocity and potency that far outclasses other comparable undead. The exact nature of any additional capabilities granted by this essence-drenching are unknown.
Aurelian’s eyes tracked rapidly between the approaching enemies, and he counted quickly. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five… his eyes narrowed when he reached a count near forty, and he realised quite quickly that there was no conceivable way for him to emerge victorious when swarmed by so many at once. He had to do something to change the landscape, and allow him to make use of his stamina efficiently, while also filtering how many he would need to fight at once.
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There was only one option.
With a smirk, Aurelian turned and ran.
The sound of hateful wailing followed behind him, and Aurelian communicated quickly to Bahamut while rapidly encroaching upon the husk of a medium-sized Manawood. There was a slim, almost insane idea brewing in his head, and it depended on so many variables that it was almost pointless to consider—and yet he had few to no better options.
He could simply play a lethal game of hide and seek among the trees, but he had no idea how long that would work, and what manner of abilities the new skeletons might possess that could hinder him. Revelate had been close to useless, there.
So instead, he decided to go with something more… direct.
Insane, perhaps, but direct.
The sound of Bahamut’s roar met his ears, and Aurelian glanced up at the same moment as he arrived at the blackened trunk of the Manawood. The runes upon his bond’s scaled body shimmered and flared with power when the young dragon took in a deep breath, and then unleashed a torrent of flames along the front line of the encroaching horde.
As Aurelian had hoped, and in confirmation of his greater plan; the substance clinging to the shambling creatures detonated upon contact with the flames. Skeletons were torn apart and savaged in a chain reaction of combusting mana, while those behind attempted to halt their awkward momentum.
Before they could arrest their momentum, another line of skeletons fell victim to the spreading flames in explosions of volatile essence, and Aurelian couldn’t help but grin viciously.
You have gained Experience!
Great work bud!
I approve of this plan! Bahamut sent back with a sense of savage glee, though weariness laid itself over it like a light blanket. The dragon had been more conservative with his fire in his strike, but he was still young, and the magic took its toll.
Get to a high point. I’ve got this. Aurelian sent to him while turning and looking up at the manawood. He only had moments before the skeletons circumvented the flames, and he needed to act. Without a moment’s more thought as to the sanity of what he planned, Aurelian hefted his Runesword, with the flat of the blade facing upward; and rammed it with every ounce of his strength into the dying bark of the Manawood.
A glance behind him told him that the undead were beginning to find their way toward him again, and he redoubled his efforts. His hands pulled his Runesword, and he worked against the density of the corrupted tree to scythe the blade sideways with as much force as he could muster. “You deserve better. I’m sorry.” He said to the suffering tree while he worked.
His mother had always said that trees had souls, and in that moment, Aurelian believed her.
The faint echo of suffering was palpable to his nascent Soul Sense.
When he could hear the approach of the first of the undead, Aurelian finally tore his sword free of the Manawood and spun around. His left hand released the Crest’s hilt, and he held the palm instead over the wound in the Manawood.
The nearest undead was barely four metres away when he surged all of his cycled mana toward that same hand.
“Firebolt.”
Aurelian turned and sprint-dove for cover behind a nearby pillar holding up one of the walkways above at the same moment as a keening noise cut through the air, and with a sigh like a cancer patient’s final breath; the Manawood tree exploded.
Shards of burning wood and blazing gouts of napalm-like ignited sap erupted in a cacophonous BOOM that slammed the skeletons into the ground, and ignited the empowering globules of corrupted essence drenching their bones.
Fire Resistance is now Level 18!
. . .
Fire Resistance is now Level 21!
Undead burned in a tidal wave of fire and concussive force, charring their bones and scorching their armour while Aurelian rolled around to rid himself of the flames that clung to his armour. He had protected his head and backpack, but the rest of him had not been so lucky. Cursing at the sheer heat of the flames, he scrambled to his feet and put distance between himself and what was rapidly becoming a building inferno within an entire section of the arboretum.
More Manawoods had caught as a result of the detonation, and more explosions were racing across the interior—thankfully far enough away that the worst of it was a cacophony of concussive blasts, as opposed to a larger conflagration.
The fact the arboretum was built entirely from marble helped immeasurably.
You have gained Experience!
Unnatural shrieks assailed his ears abruptly, and Aurelian spun to look where he’d unleashed the firestorm—only to feel Dragon’s Resolve immediately surge to the fore at the sight which greeted him.
Massive creatures that looked like the nightmare hybrid between a black widow spider and desert scorpion, with eight legs, as many eyes, two immense pincers and armoured stinger-tails tumbled from the formerly hidden depths and boughs of now-inflamed manawoods. The creatures, whose mottled carapaces glowed with corruption, screeched in horrible agony, and pain, at the flames tearing apart their chitinous bodies and detonating the globules of corruption upon their carapaces.
What fresh horrors are these? Bahamut asked with clear disgust.
Let’s find out. Aurelian sent back simply.
With a mixture of revulsion and horrified fascination, he used Revelate.
Name: Corrupted Skarnid
Race: Blight Arachnid
Level: 33
Tier: Initiate
Health: 389/1766
Description: Skarnids are twisted predators that thrive in the Desolation, and stalk its corrupted lands for prey with which to sate their consuming hunger. This Skarnid’s already vile form has been further corrupted by foul uses of twisted Life and Nature mana, creating a foetid abomination.
Even with Dragon’s Resolve blazing in his mind and his grip on his Runesword secure, Aurelian felt himself physically force his hands to steadiness while staring down the burning, but still-alive forms of the hulking creatures.
With a deep breath he brought his blade up before him, extended it, and pointed it out at the Skarnids in what he hoped was a heroic and challenging pose.
Judging from the enraged shrieks, he succeeded.
Aurelian smiled grimly, and he felt savage glee when they charged forward.
There was at least one thing from Earth that had remained with him, after all.
He had always fucking hated spiders.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/846223109434114110/1196106346962104491/SPOILER_Corrupted_Skarnid.png?ex=65c8e0d7&is=65b66bd7&hm=b8468c1303864db3d2cbcbc45d7fedff9b6ffdcf58c7cbcebc8ba9e1ce75e5a3&]Corrupted Skarnid Concept Art