Kitty stared up at the message in utter confusion. Dren the Beast Tamer was an invader from some other planet? That made them an alien, right?
Knowledge of the coming invasions had long since become widespread. But, wasn’t that supposed to happen months from now? Plus it made no sense to her that they had fought to defend her Haven. To only then come here to try and steal this one. How did one even steal a Haven? It was all too much. Glass erupted from the top of the hotel as an explosion detonated. All around her people were gathering in the streets as confused as she was. More explosions shook the hotel before two flaming figures jumped out from the top floor into the night. They sailed away from the hotel before the smaller one seemed to collide with the bigger one. Then both were yanked to a stop before swinging back to crash into one of the middle floors windows.
Confusion reigned supreme all around her as the crowd spoke amongst themselves. Some were running towards the hotel while others were making a break for the city gates. More explosions rocked the hotel and sprays of glass rained down around the building. Kitty had heard similar explosions before and had a good idea of what caused them.
“There has to be a reason. This just doesn’t make sense. Some sort of mistake. Right?” She let out a small nervous laugh. What had she gotten herself into?
Even as she questioned recent events the two flamming figures exploded out from a lower floors window. For a moment they hung in the air then the flames went out causing both figures to vanish into the night once again. She could just barely make out their silhouette against the stars before they both vanished completely. She watched the spot with a pounding heart, unsure what to do.
*****
Dren felt Ren wrapping six of her eight limbs around him before she yanked him away. She was again using her threads to pull them, but this time not back into the tall building but away. Down towards the roof of another building. Just before hitting the roof, she let go of him and he teleported away. Moving upwards where his momentum fought against gravity a moment before he dropped safely to the roof. Ren had hit the roof in a tight ball, having no easy way to stop her own momentum. But popped back up almost instantly. Both reactivated their stealth. With the Aegis wounded and one of the natives already dead. Dren had thought they might have a chance. But more reinforcements had arrived. Not nearly as powerful as the first group, but numbers were their own power. Dren had blasted out another wave of death. Pouring more of his own health into it hoping to at least kill the Aegis. Yet, even down the stupid defensive class was too tough. The ripple of death washed over him like a wave crashing against an unmoveable boulder, eating away at more of his health. But his defensive abilities seemed to weaken the aura’s effect greatly. Even the others resisted more of its effect than he would have believed.
Dren guessed the system wouldn’t allow it to easily kill integrated individuals. But he did earn a kill notification. But the cost to his own health was too high to continue doing so. Nor did he want to fight the growing number of natives. Grabbing Ren it had been time to put their escape plan into play. Yet, when they crashed into the lower floor they ran right into another group of natives. Caught off guard they were pelted with another barrage of explosive daggers, these being the ones also enchanted for bleeding, which netted him two more kills.
More and more natives seemed to be flooding into the building seeking to swarm over them. Together they rushed across the building's middle floor. Diving into rooms and down hallways while more and more of the natives gave chase. Worse somehow it seemed like they knew where he was going to be. Several times he opened doors to get blasted by spells and peppered by attacks. Each ambush chipped away at his health while fighting them whittled his resources. A blast of mana aura here. A pulse of stamina aura there. A barrage of daggers into a charging group. Sure he was racking up kills, but they seemed relentless. Shouldn’t they be more unprepared for his attack than this? Or had that Maria done even more to set him up?
Glancing back up at the building he blanched when he saw his own image hovering in the sky. “What the hell?”
Even more shocking was a moment later the image vanished. The dull mechanical voice boomed overhead again. “Haven Lord Richard Freeley has resumed control over the Haven. The invaders have been driven out.”
How? That was all Dren could think. Hadn’t he killed the Haven Lord? What was going on here? But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. While he hadn’t gotten control of the Haven and all those sweet rewards. He had fulfilled his contract. Now it was time to make his escape. There was certain to be more coming after him. But Dren paused to glare up at the penthouse floor. He couldn’t see her, but he just knew she was there. “I won’t forget this. Damned Natives. I should have never trusted you.” Dren added the Seer to his kill list. Right below that Scourge. He even wondered if she was somehow tied to that monster of a man. Had she planned this all from the start?
Ripping an arrow from his body he flung it away before motioning for Ren to follow. Together they jumped from roof to roof until they hit the outer wall. Then they climbed over it and slipped into the darkness beyond.
*****
“Damn that invader.” Kyle grunted as he staggered to his feet. Had he not triggered his Stone affinity passive he wouldn’t have survived. The increased defenses and maximum health had weakened that strange ability the invader had used. Still, he barely survived it after that first attack pierce his armor. There was no way such an attack should have done so much damage. Even worse it somehow drained most of his stamina and crashed his mana.
“We are lucky you had a vision when you did Seer. Did we make it in time to save the Haven Lord?” He glanced around, his gaze landing on the immobile piles of bones.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“We did.” Maria assured him just as an explosion erupted from down below. Everyone looked down.
“We have to follow after him.” Kyle grunted even as their healer worked on restoring his health. Glancing around he realized they had lost several people. Just how powerful was that monster of an invader? He hoped all the invaders wouldn’t be like that one.
“I will stay here. I need to help Richard reclaim the Haven. The rest of you go after them please.” They nodded and made their way out of the mostly destroyed room as quickly as they could. Leaving Maria alone in the penthouse. Once they were out of sight she moved over to the stone table and looked down at it. Her hand reached out for it. Then stopped just before she touched it. Her eyes went unfocused for a moment then she pulled back her hand. “No, that is not my path. Besides, things have still gone mostly as planned.”
Stepping away she moved to the body previously hidden by the large stone table. Blood pooled around them, soaking their mottled black and white robe. She mentally counted down in her head while watching the corpse, it was almost time. Then just as she predicted the entire thing burst into sickly green flames. Blood evaporated, flesh melted, hair burnt away, and in a matter of moments, only bones remained. Unlike the other skeletons in the room, the one before her now was a pristine white. As she watched ghostly green flames flickered to light to flood the empty eye sockets. Slowly the flames died down until two tiny sparks of flames floated within those two hollow sockets. A moment later the sparks grew into tiny flames and the skeleton moved.
“What happened.” Richard’s voice sounded hollow compared to when he was flesh and blood. Yet it was definitely his voice.
“You died.” Maria said calmly as she activated her own unique Identify.
Name: Richard Freeley
Race: Undead: Skeleton (Native)
Class: Skeletal Lord Level One.
Profession: Noble Aspirant Level Twenty Four. Experience Capped. Advancement criteria not yet met.
Haven Lord of Necropolis.
Active quests one.
Noblesse Oblige:
Garner the true loyalty of five thousand natives to progress your rank to Noble.
Progress: 928/5000
Maria couldn’t help smiling even as Richard scrambled to his feet in panic. “What. How can this be?” He stammered out while looking at his skeletal hands. The flames in his eye sockets flickered and waved unsteadily.
Maria considered telling him the truth finally. That this had been the solution to his bottleneck. He needed to die. But there was no way he would have ever believed her. She had considered having him killed several times. But advancing only his class wouldn’t have been enough for her goals. Sure advancing his class had been enough to prevent the bottleneck she was approaching. In fact, just getting this far had brought her to level twenty-four. But she could do so much better. Far better. If she could ensure he gained the Noble status for his profession. Well, that would potentially change her own fate. Not only breaking potential bottlenecks but actually giving her a chance at evolution.
But to get people to follow someone like Richard. To earn their loyalty would be difficult. Unless the man could do something truly spectacular. Like driving off an invader at a great personal sacrifice. She already had information ready to be leaked. Portraying his rebirth as an undead to be the cost he paid protecting the Haven. From the first day of the integration, she had been working towards this goal. All the information granted to her by both her Seer class and her Guide profession had given her far more insight than nearly anyone else on the planet.
Richard snapping his boney fingers in her face brought her out of her musing. “Did you know this was going to happen?” Richard practically screeched, his voice sounding like bone scraping against bone.
“I only had a vision of this right before you were attacked. Sadly, we did not make it in time. But luckily the system has seen fit to provide you with a second life. You must truly be destined for greatness.” Maria professed yet she could feel that Richard didn’t completely buy it. It didn’t matter. There was nothing that could be done now. “Congratulations on evolving your class.”
That seemed to ease his tension some as he grew still while viewing his new system status. More explosions detonated below in rapid succession drawing him back to reality. “I’m going to kill that assassin.” He growled as the rattle of bones filled the penthouse while skeletons rose up.
“First you need to reclaim the Haven. The populous needs to know you are with us and have succeeded in driving the invader away.” Maria stopped him from charging out. She needed more time to prepare the rest of the Haven for his new race before they just charged out into the public view.
“Right.” Richard said after a moment. Then moved straight to the stone table to place his boney hand on it. Right after the system’s voice boomed into the night once again. Announcing that the invader had been driven away. Maria used her identify on the freshly risen Skeletal Lord again and smiled as his quest now showed more than half those he needed to be loyal to him were. There was still more work to do but things were already progressing rapidly. As she thought that the system chimed with another level up.
*****
Countless system screens hovered within the room as Maria shifted to examine them all. Every pattern had been predicted and prepared for. Yet, the invader had escaped. She went back and reviewed the predictions from the earliest days. All should have been fine, yet things had not gone as they should have. Something had changed events. A shift from what should have been. Where had they gotten that strange class? Moreover, why were they stronger than they should have been?
“Is it that companion? I can’t see her fate at all. Is it because she is a creature of the system? Or is someone else manipulating fate? Is that even possible? It was the system itself that calculated these paths. Even if the system partially masks the fate of non-natives from me. This variance is too much. I used the fate of those around them to confirm it. Yet, strange. Even their fates have changed. Perhaps I should meet one whose fate has been changed.” Maria closed all the system screens. “Then again. Does it matter that they lived? I have broken my own bottleneck by helping Richard break his. Soon enough he will become a true noble. The stories of how he defeated the invader are spreading like wildfire. When he evolves his profession as well, my own class evolution will be guaranteed. What can one invader do?”
For a while longer she pondered what to do, her head throbbing from mapping so many potential futures. Even if the system did most of the work, it was draining. “Fine, better safe than sorry.” Her mind was made up.