The air was oppressive as Jude looked out over his own people. Beyond them in the distance was Guudnash in his new form as a .  The dark sky shown behind him as flashes of lightning rained down from the evil clouds. 

Instantly as the beast raised its head the ground started to turn black from it’s evil corruption.  Out of its mouth spewed forth a hazy cloud of sulfur.  The stench rapidly filled the air making all of Heroic Retribution want to gag and throw up.

Jude began to silently issue orders, making sure everyone was in their proper place.   He wasn’t sure if Guudnash would still be targeting him alone, so he had to warriors spread out enough to make it difficult for him to pass through.   Yet not so far apart that they couldn’t converge if necessary.

He wondered if Guudnash had told him the truth about his skills.  With the right combinations, disappearing could still be devastating to his group, even with Jude’s counter tactic.  If Guudnash lost that skill, things would be easier.  At the very least he couldn't consistently use .

Just in case, Jude kept his Spectral Vision up but compartmentalized it so that his regular vision wouldn't be disrupted.

Guudnash finally raised his head up, then he roared!  It was so powerful that it created a shockwave that pushed back the front line of warriors.

The Warriors immediately the target attempting to draw its attention towards them.

A dark light flashed over the and he disappeared.  Then another flash of dark light he reappeared on the front line.  At the same time, his huge bough of an arm swung, and his claw of a hand hit half of the of Warriors.

Jude began issuing commands, “Krinn stay in front and focus on taunting.  The rest of the Warriors and Rogues, stay out of his front ark.  Wen act as the backup tank.  Keep taunting as well, in case we need to pull Krinn out.  Healers, do your thing and Wizards conserve your mana until we know what else this thing can do.”

The fighting continued, and it wasn’t long before another roar came from Guudnash.  This time the Warriors and Rogues were much closer as they were in melee.  When the shock wave hit them this time, everyone was thrown back.

This shout skill would probably not do much damage to another level 50, but since everyone here was around level 20, it was much more noticeable.  Nearly everyone up close lost a quarter of each person's health.  Those farther back were merely knocked back.

“Don’t take health potions just yet,” Jude reminded them.  “Let the healers do their job and only use them when you are below half health.”

The healers were working overtime today.

They continued to hack away at the , and it seemed like this was going to be a straight forward fight.  He didn’t have as much defense as the had yet his health pool was staggering.  Jude was beginning to wonder if Guudnash was still in there or if transforming into a had indeed wiped away his personality.

“Wizards, begin converging ,” Jude ordered.  He preferred to use other spells, but he couldn’t deny the power of .  What he didn’t like about it was the mana cost and the fact that no one could move while casting it.  Except for Cairfray, somehow she managed it.

Once all the converged, but before the damage had ramped up, Jude could see a glint in Guudnash’s eye and a slight smile on his face.

He’s such a deceiver! Jude thought.

Guudnash teleported with a shin of black light and appeared in the middle of the Wizards and Healers.  Then he used his roar skill once again blasting back them all back.  The roar vaguely hit the tanks it and because it was an area of effect skill it did full damage.

The Wizards were injured, but they at least had active to reduce injury.  Healers, however, didn’t have such a skill and took even more damage.  Regardless, all of them had a smaller health pool than Warriors or Rogues, so they were in a bad spot.

Krinn and the rest all rushed forward, but since they now all faced the demon in the same direction, Guudnash directly turned around and did his sweeping claw attack hitting nearly everyone.

“Everyone, use potions now!” Jude shouted.

Jude was amazed at how well Guudnash’s plan worked out.  In a single set of moves, he knocked down the health of the whole raid by a considerable margin.  They evened it out with potions, but there was only so much a potion could do in a battle.

“Healers and Wizards spread out,” Jude said.  “Ellie, track how the time between each roar and teleport.  We need an estimate of how often he can use it.”

Jude didn’t think that Guudnash would be able to use those skills continuously, otherwise he would.  There must be a time delay between each one.  Figuring out that delay would be necessary to formulate a strategy.  Ellie had a natural sense of timing which was one of the reasons why she was such a good blacksmith.   This was why Jude gave her the task.

The fight continued with Guudnash occasionally teleporting and roaring in combination to effect the maximum amount of damage. If things continued this way, the Healers would run out of mana before they could slay Guudnash.

While Ellie was taking count of Guudnash’s skills, Jude pondered a way to overcome their situation.  With the recent arrival and disappearance of Feyrath, it remineded him of the things Feyrath had told him.  Through Feyrath, Jude found out that to advance skills he had to ‘feel’ them out along with being ‘logical.’ 

Feeling out skills was how everyone naturally learned them, only Jude was different.  Getting past Rank III for ordinary people it would be necessary for them to learn the logical side of their skills.  This was why Jude was able to get past Rank III in some skills and not get past it in others.  Through the logic of the Modicuit, Jude had the logical side down and only in times of distress did he ‘feel’ out a way to get past the obstacles of Rank III.

But what he now realized was that he never applied this to his Spell Analyst skills!  He couldn’t see these skills in his Modicuit, so he was reduced to learning them like everyone else, through feel.  Obtaining a logical viewpoint of these skills without the Modicuit was not easy, and in the meantime Jude would only be able to lightly touch on it.  But perhaps it would be enough.

This line of thinking brought Jude to the second idea: Controlling the skill category directly.  and were both under the category.   obviously had endless possibilities, but he didn’t intend to create new magic as during a battle it would nearly be impossible.  Instead, if he could using it to manipulate another spell it just might be possible.

For the final idea, Jude needed a source to draw from that was not just his own.  He still had Spectral Vision up from his previous fight and had maintained it just in case Guudnash was able to go invisible yet again.  Spectral Vision didn’t allow Jude to see the magic in the world, but it did allow him to see the source and power of spectral nature.

Jude hadn’t put much thought into Spectral Vision previously and it had faded so that he would see the world normally.  When he turned it back up he once again was able to see a ghostly world around him.  Then he gazed around and could easily see the bright flame of the souls of those near him.  Guudnash too had a flame, but instead of a lively flame like a camp fire, it was white in the center but mostly black all the way to the edges.  But the most striking was the pillar of black smoke towering up into the sky from the monolith.

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From the monolith, Jude could see tormented souls rising into the firmament.  When they rose up into the clouds, the soul like manifestations was broken down.  This process created the black rain that was attempting to corrupt everything.  But the byproduct of it was a massive amount of spectral energy left over.

To Jude, the sky was incredibly bright, like day time.  Unlike the dark and gloomy storm that was raging.  This magic was unbound and was rising to a critical point as it saturated the atmosphere.  Jude doubted that this byproduct was unintentional as was most likely part of the plan.  However, it was also just what Jude was looking for.

“I’ve got the timing down,” Ellie whispered to Jude.  “He will be able to teleport again in about 15 seconds and will have a cool down of two minutes.  The roar cool down is about 1 minute, but it seems to amplify the damage the longer it’s on cool down.”

Jude was impressed, “Thanks, Ellie, this will be a big help!”

Jude gathered his mana and flowed it through converting it into spectral mana.  Then he used and boosted its effects with to extend the silver threads up into the spectral magic above the clouds.  Next, he connected the silver threads to both and .  After this he took the spectral mana inside him and primed the silver threads turning them violet.

Once the silver treads turned violet the spectral power in the atmosphere began raging down into Jude’s Modicuit.  The power was so overwhelming that even without a special means to see magic or spectral power, a clear visible glow of blue and purple could be seen around Jude.

Jude silently cursed as this light would alert Guudnash. 

Guudnash did in fact notice the violent energy coalescing around Jude.  He instantly used his teleport skill and blasted out a palm strike.   The palm strike wasn’t actually the purpose of the skill as it halted right before hitting Jude.  Then lightning burst out of the palm.  Jude’s spectral swords were unable to defend against this attack and it directly hit the shield.

But the nature of this attack wasn’t meant for damage, but to disrupt spells.  Jude’s blocked out the damage, but the lighting still penetrated through.  Jude was stunned momentarily, but it was impossible to stop the reaction of his spell as it that had already been started.  What Jude had done up to this point was casting several different spells and was in between his preparations and his final spell.

Guudnash didn’t know this, and when he saw that the violent energy sill emanating in Jude, his eye twitched.  He started backing up towards the slop that led to the ruins of the citadel and the monolith.  The energy that radiated of Jude caused even him to feel trepidation.

***

At this point, the other major raids could see a backing up into the field of battle.  Morgans first thought was fear as this creature was clearly a threat.  But then it turned to confusion as the itself looked afraid.  What could be going on down there?

At this point, a voice echoed out across the landscape.  It was young but stunning to hear, “!”

A beam of power as thick as a man shot up to the heavens.  It hit the sky causing the clouds to agitate with excitement.

Then the clouds broke as a giant sword made of spectral magic crashed down.  The sword was massive, like a tower falling towards the .

Shock filled the faces of everyone present.  Even the demons stopped to watch the spectacle.  No one had ever seen or heard of such a grand spell like this.

The was now running for his life.  Morgan watched him as he fled up the hill to the ruins of the citadel and the monolith.  The did not take kindly to this as the grand spectral sword up in the sky was following as it fell down.

The voice of the could be heard across the battle field as he shouted, “No, get back!  Guudnash, you cosh, don’t come up this way!”

Morgan was greatly surprised; he had heard what Guudnash had done in the past about framing Jude.  He had a good impression of Jude from the first day they met so he had kept track of all the news about him.  From the defaming that Guudnash and Abaud had done to his rise as a Heroic Wizard.  Even the creation of Heroic Retribution had not passed his attention.  He knew who Guudnash was and so did everyone else.  Which was why everyone was so surprised to find out that Guudnash had turned into a .

Anger burned in Morgan and all those where were fighting.  Guudnash was now more a traitor than ever!   But there was also joy in seeing the demise of such a character.  Of course, there was only one such person that could cause such a significant event to happen.  And only one person who would go to such an extent as this. 

Jude.

Pride filled the hearts of those in this battle.  Jude was a resplendent character in these parts.  He was the local hero.  He was their hero.

The sword drew nearer to Guudnash at a slowly accelerating speed.  But it only seemed slow due to the height it was at and the size of the sword. It was only after seeing it gradually fall that people understood how big it was.  It was half way to the ground yet the end of the sword was still up beyond the clouds. 

Guudnash howled in torment as he could not shake the sword and felt the pressure of it coming down upon him.  No matter how far he ran, that sword would still get him.

The sword was three-fourths of the way down yet the top still had not been seen.

Guudnash continued up the hill to the scowl of Lerhadar, the .

Lerhadar still had a small horde of summoned demons still standing by the monolith under the control of a , so he ordered them, “Use the horde to stop him and drive him away from the hill!”

The demons quickly bounded down the hill to stop Guudnash who was lost in his terror.  These smaller demons were incredibly fast, but their low levels proved difficult for them to truly stop Guudnash in his tracks, much less push him back.  Still it was enough to slow him down as the sword was quickly picking up speed as it fell.

Finally, the sword landed piercing through Guudnash and cutting him in half.  The sword had just now cleared the clouds, its size entirely dwarfing the battle field.  But its momentum could not be stopped after merely piercing through Guudnash.  It continued to sink into the ground causing the earth to tremble.

***

Jude was utterly surprised by the size of the spectral sword he created.  Every bit of the spectral magic that was in the atmosphere had been used up.  But was that really shocking considering the size of the sword that it created?

The sword finally hit its target and Jude let out a sigh of relief.  Controlling that massive sword took everything he had.  Now he slumped to the ground smoking.  He had burnt out his physical body and perhaps his Modicuit too.  Handling that amount of power was far too dangerous.

Then the earth started trembling as the momentum of the sword had yet to stop.

“Watch out; I can’t completely control it!” Jude shouted.

Jude couldn’t directly dispel the sword; there simply was to much energy in it.  Dispelling it could literally cause it to explode.  Yet right now it was magical energy turned to mass with a lot of momentum already built into it from the fall.  If he somehow stopped it, it was possible that it could fall over and crush an untold amount of people.  If he let it sink in further it could cause earth quakes.  But that all depended on what was under the ground.

That was when Jude remembered what was beneath the town.  It was the corrupted root of the Town Stone that had then formed that strange monolith.

Perhaps sinking it into the ground was exactly what he needed to do.  Previously he was going to try and disable the monolith from up close, but now he had the chance to cut its roots!

Instead of stopping it, Jude pushed it in with greater force! He ignored his injuries and the burning sensation that it caused, both inside and out. The ground shook and rumbled as the sword continued to penetrate into the hill.  Guudnash, who was split in two, was still alive and howling curses at the top of his lungs.  But no one could hear him over the rumbling of the earth and sword.

The sword forced its way through the soil and finally made contact with the corrupted stone.  A great cracking sound echoed forth as the mountain of a root was split open.  The grand sword gouged deeper into its surface before coming to an inevitable stop.  

However, the sword was just too big.  It still towered into the sky and because it originated above Jude and Guudnash ran away, it’s angle was now leaning over Heroic Retribution.  The corrupted stone under the hill proved to have enough stopping power to keep the sword from entering far enough to be stable.  Now the sword growned as its unstable position wanted to topple over.

Heroic Retribution was not in the right place.

At the same time, corruption from the stone started eating away at the tip of the sword.  This corruption gave Jude a clue as to what to do. 

Jude began to dispel the sword.  But the dispelling was uneven because of the corruption, causing the spectral power there to go out of control.  Jude then stabilized the rest of the sword, but allowed the tip to run wild.  This resulted in the energy of the sword to leak out the tip, but considering the size of the sword, a leak turned into an explosion of power.

The spectral power rushed out of the sword and slammed into the corrupted stone.  

This reaction caused an unexpected change.